Av:  - 


INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL 
FACTOR  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


INDULGENCES  AS  A 
SOCIAL  FACTOR  IN 
THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


By 

Dr.  NIKOLAUS  PAULUS 

Translated  by 

J.  ELLIOT  ROSS 


With  a  foreword  by 

EUGENE  C.  BARKER 

Chairman  of  the  School  of  History 
University  of  Texas 


^0/  . 

\  /  -  , 

— 

DOfdSSTIC 


ÜSJUHY 


NEW  YORK 

THE  DEVIN-ADAIR  COMPANY 


mbH  (S)b0tat 

Walter  E.  Hopper,  C.S.P, 


Censor  Deputatus. 

Cum  pcrmi00u  superiorum 

Thomas  F.  Burke,  C.S.P., 
Superior  General. 

Imprimatur 

^C.  E.  Byrne, 
Eap.  Galvestoneusis. 

September  15,  1921. 

Copyright,  1922,  by 
DEVIN-ADAIR  COMPANY 


/ill  Rights  Reserved 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction  . 13 


SECTION  I 

INDULGENCES  FOR  ECCLESIASTICAL 
AND  CHARITABLE  OBJECTS 

1.  Churchbuilding  . 23 

2.  Hospitals,  Charitable  Institutions, 

Works  of  Mercy,  Schools  .  .  46 

3.  The  Truce  of  God . 59 

4.  The  Crusades . 62 

SECTION  II 

INDULGENCES  FOR  SOCIALLY  USEFUL 
TEMPORAL  OBJECTS 

1.  Bridgebuilding . 67 

2.  Dams  and  Roads,  Harbors  and 

Fortifications.  Colonization 
Projects . 104 

3.  Guilds,  Marksmen  Clubs  .  .  .  iii 

4.  Montes  Pietatis . 119 


5 


i 


FOREWORD 


^^INCE  the  age  of  Luther  and  the  Protestant 
eö'  Revolt,  indulgences  have  been  to  non- 
Catholics  one  of  the  least  understood  and  most 
criticized  institutions  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
Some  of  the  misconception  is  undoubtedly  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  writings  of  Catholic  historians, 
lay  or  cleric,  too  generally  ignore  the  point  of  view 
of  the  intelligent  non-Catholic.  Some  of  it, 
equally  without  doubt,  is  due  to  the  failure  of 
non-Catholic  secular  historians  to  avail  them¬ 
selves  fully  even  of  the  means  at  hand  to  under¬ 
stand  the  ecclesiastical  viewpoint. 

In  the  present  essay,  which  Fr.  Ross  has  put 
into  such  straightforward  English,  Dr.  Paulus  has 
not  concerned  himself  with  the  doctrine  of  indul¬ 
gences,  and  for  that  reason,  perhaps,  his  book 
will  make  a  wider  appeal  to  the  non-Catholic 
mind.  Frequently  the  indulgence  was  merely  a 
permit  to  commute  one  form  of  penance  into 
another,  and  Dr.  Paulus  has  pointed  out  the  social 
significance  of  this  fact.  Fasting  or  some  other 
such  penance  was  changed  into  a  contribution  of 
money  or  service  to  some  useful  public  undertak¬ 
ing,  and  Dr.  Paulus  presents  an  impressive  list 
of  these  works  due  to  a  commutation  of  penances, 
or  indulgences. 

The  list  includes  the  construction  and  mainte¬ 
nance  of  churches,  schools,  hospitals,  and  other 
charitable  institutions;  bridges,  dams,  roads,  har- 

7 


8 


INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


bors  and  fortifications,  and  the  stimulation  of 
such  important  social  movements  as  Crusades  and 
the  Truce  of  God.  This  latter  was  the  first  really 
effective  step  taken  to  end  the  almost  universal 
petty  warfare,  pillage,  and  banditry  of  the  early 
Middle  Ages,  and  of  itself  would  give  importance 
to  this  feature  of  indulgences. 

In  making  this  contribution  to  Church  history 
easily  accessible  in  English,  Fr.  Ross  has  ren¬ 
dered  a  service  of  genuine  value. 

Eugene  C.  Barker, 
Chairman  of  the  School  of  History, 
University  of  Texas. 


TRANSLATOR’S  PREFACE 


^ITHE  accompanying  essay  of  Dr.  Paulus  treats 
indulgences  from  a  rather  unusual  stand» 
point — their  social  effect  on  the  life  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  Because  his  purpose  is  to  show  the  pub¬ 
licly  useful  results  of  indulgences  for  temporal 
undertakings,  the  author  almost  entirely  passes 
over  the  theological  side.  It  may  be  well,  there¬ 
fore,  to  preface  this  translation  with  a  short  ex¬ 
planation  of  this  feature  of  indulgences. 

An  indulgence  is  not  a  forgiveness  of  past  sin, 
nor  a  permission  to  commit  sin  in  the  future. 

On  the  contrary,  an  indulgence  is  merely  a  re¬ 
mission,  by  the  application  of  Christ’s  merits,  of 
the  whole  or  a  part  of  the  temporal  punishment 
due  to  forgiven  sin. 

Catholic  theologians  distinguish  between  the 
guilt  of  a  sin  and  the  temporal  punishment  due  for 
the  violation  of  God’s  order.  The  guilt  of  the  sin 
may  be  forgiven  while  the  temporal  punishment 
remains.  The  soundness  of  this  distinction  is 
abundantly  evident  from  Scripture.  Thus  David’s 
sin  with  the  wife  of  Urias  was  forgiven,  but  nev¬ 
ertheless  he  had  to  make  satisfaction  for  it 
through  the  sorrow  of  losing  the  child  (II  Kings, 
XII,  13,  14).  And  the  fact  that  the  individual 
sinner  can  satisfy  for  the  temporal  punishment 
due  his  sins  is  taught  in  Jonas  III;  II  Paral. 
(Chron.),  XXXIII,  12;  Eccles.,  Ill,  33;  Daniel, 
IV,  24;  Luke,  XI,  41. 

9 


10  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


In  the  early  ages  of  the  Church,  apparently, 
It  was  the  object  of  the  confessor  in  the  Sacrament 
of  Penance  to  impose  a  penance  that  would  satisfy 
for  the  whole  of  the  temporal  punishment  due 
to  the  sins  confessed.  Later  it  was  permitted  to 
commute  these  penances  through  an  indulgence, 
the  merits  of  Christ  being  applied  to  the  satisfac¬ 
tion  that  otherwise  would  have  been  made  by  the 
penitent.  Originally  given  in  fractions  of  the 
imposed  penance — as  one-half,  one-third,  and  so 
on — these  commutations  finally  came  to  be  spec¬ 
ified  in  days  corresponding  to  the  amount  of 
satisfaction  that  would  be  made  by  doing  penance 
for  that  number  of  days  according  to  the  ancient 
discipline.  Thus  a  forty  days  indulgence,  or  a 
quarantine,  is  the  satisfaction  for  such  an  amount 
of  temporal  punishment  as  would  be  satisfied  for 
by  doing  penance  for  forty  days  according  to  the 
ancient  penances — for  instance,  fasting  on  bread 
and  water  for  forty  days. 

Indulgences  are  partial  or  plenary  according 
as  they  remit  a  whole  or  a  part  of  the  temporal 
punishment  due  to  sin. 

We  can,  perhaps,  better  grasp  the  theory  back 
of  indulgences  if  we  consider  an  illustration  from 
modern  business.  A  man  who  has  ten  thousand 
dollars  in  a  bank  can  take  a  piece  of  paper  that  is 
in  itself  worthless,  write  an  order  or  a  check  on 
that  bank  for  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  the  worth¬ 
less  piece  of  paper  becomes  worth  that  much 
money.  In  somewhat  the  same  way,  we  say  that 
Christ  deposited  His  infinite  merits  to  the  credit 
of  the  Church,  He  gave  her  authority  to  check 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


11 


against  them.  Hence  she  can  take  a  work  that  is 
practically  worthless  in  itself — the  giving  of  a 
small  alms,  the  recitation  of  a  few  prayers — write 
some  figures  on  it,  as  it  were,  sign  it,  and  it  be¬ 
comes  worth  what  she  says  it  is  worth.  She  has 
drawn  a  check  against  her  heavenly  bank  account 
of  the  merits  of  Christ. 

The  Church  claims  the  authority  to  do  this  be¬ 
cause  Christ  told  the  Apostles,  “Whose  sins  you 
shall  forgive,  they  are  forgiven  them”  (John, 
XX,  23)  ;  and  again,  “Whatsoever  you  shall  loose 
upon  earth,  shall  be  loosed  also  in  heaven” 
(Matt.,  XVIII,  18). 

That  indulgences,  as  we  have  explained  them, 
do  not  induce  to  sin  by  making  satisfaction  easy 
is  clear  from  the  fact  that  the  recipient  of  an 
indulgence  must  be  free  from  mortal  sin.  For 
plenary  indulgences  confession  and  Communion 
are  usually  required. 

Keeping  in  mind  this  theological  background 
of  indulgences,  we  are  in  a  position  to  profit  by 
Dr.  Paulus’s  study  of  their  social  effect  in  the 
Middle  Ages. 


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INTRODUCTION 


3j2ECAUSE  of  the  misunderstandings  which 
even  the  indulgences  for  useful  public  pur¬ 
poses  have  often  evoked,  it  will  be  helpful  to 
preface  this  historical  exposition  with  a  short 
doctrinal  explanation.  According  to  the  common 
Protestant  representation  an  indulgence  is  noth¬ 
ing  else  than  the  forgiveness  of  sin.  And  if  one 
has  ever  mistaken  an  indulgence  for  the  pardon 
of  sin  and  then  hears  that  in  the  Middle  Ages 
indulgences  were  connected  with  a  monetary  con¬ 
tribution  to  this  or  that  good  work,  the  conclusion 
is  unavoidable  that  according  to  the  teaching  .of 
Catholics  men  can  be  freed  from  their  sins  for 
a  few  cents,  and  may  sin  again  as  often  as  they 
are  willing  to  pay  the  fee.  This  notion,  however, 
is  entirely  erroneous. 

In  order  to  understand  indulgences  at  all  cor¬ 
rectly,  it  is  necessary  to  go  back  to  the  penitential 
discipline  of  the  early  Middle  Ages.  According 
to  the  penitential  regulations  of  those  days  every 
single  mortal  sin  was  covered  by  its  own  special 
penance — often  of  three,  five,  seven,  ten,  or  even 
more  years.  Apart  from  other  penitential  works, 
more  or  less  strict  fasting  was  most  frequently 
imposed,  not  rarely  on  bread  and  water  for 
months  together. 

In  course  of  time,  however,  it  became  evident 
that  such  strictness  could  scarcely  be  kept  up  in 
practice.  An  easing  up  seemed  to  be  strongly 

13 


14  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


demanded.  Since  the  ecclesiastical  authorities 
could  in  no  wise  preserve  the  traditional  peni¬ 
tential  regulations  and  yet  wished  to  save  at  least 
their  theoretical  value,  the  need  of  the  faithful 
had  to  be  met  in  another  way.  This  happened 
first  of  all  through  the  so-called  redemptions  or 
ransoms,  which  about  the  middle  of  the  seventh 
century  first  came  into  existence  in  Ireland  and 
England,  and  then  gradually  spread  to  the  con¬ 
tinent.  They  consisted  in  this,  that  grievous  and 
long  enduring  penances,  especially  very  long  fasts, 
could  be  commuted  into  something  easier,  gener¬ 
ally  into  prayers  and  alms  for  good  works.  These 
changes,  which  actually  amounted  to  a  reduction  of 
the  penances,  were  thus  from  time  to  time  adopted 
by  the  confessor  in  the  tribunal  of  Penance.  The 
changes  for  the  commuting  of  fasting  into  alms¬ 
giving  could  be  applied  at  will  to  different  good 
objects;  they  should  be  devoted  especially,  as  was 
often  noted  in  the  penance-books,  to  the  poor  and 
imprisoned,  as  well  as  to  the  churches. 

These  afore  -  mentioned  penance  -  changings, 
which  took  place  now  and  then  in  the  confessional, 
prepared  the  way  for  other  modifications  in  the 
discipline  of  penances,  especially  for  such  as  the 
bishops  outside  the  Sacrament  of  Penance  would 
grant  universally.  These  later  modifications  are 
indulgences  in  the  present  form,  first  met  with 
in  the  eleventh  century.^  In  connection  with  the 
imparting  of  such  indulgences  the  bishop  an- 

'Compare  the  author’s  treatment  of  the  beginning  of  indul¬ 
gences  in  Zeitschrift  für  Kath.  Theologie,  XXXIX  (1915),  193- 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


15 


nounced:  Whoever  does  this  or  that — for  ex¬ 
ample,  reverently  visits  a  church,  makes  a  con¬ 
tribution  to  the  building  of  a  church  or  hospital 
— will  have  a  part  of  his  penance  remitted. 
Originally  the  indulgence  was  usually  measured 
in  fractions — a  fourth,  a  third,  or  a  half  of  the 
penance  was  remitted.  Soon,  however,  it  became 
more  customary  to  dispense  according  to  a  defi¬ 
nite  time  measurement.  An  indulgence  of  ten, 
twenty,  forty  days,  or  a  year  was  imparted. 

But  in  that  way  the  faithful  were  not  only 
released  from  the  fulfillment  of  imposed  or  to-be- 
imposed  ecclesiastical  punishments.  In  addition 
a  supernatural  efficacy  was  from  the  first  attrib¬ 
uted  to  the  indulgence.  It  was  a  remission,  avail¬ 
ing  before  God,  of  the  temporal  punishment  due  to 
sin,  with  the  result  that  one  who  shared  in  an 
indulgence  would  have  a  shorter  time  in  Purga¬ 
tory.  For  example,  one  who  gained  an  indulgence 
of  forty  days  would  be  freed  from  that  amount 
of  temporal  punishment  which  before  God  he 
would  have  satisfied  for  by  an  ecclesiastical  pun¬ 
ishment  of  forty  days. 

However,  to  gain  the  indulgence  one  must  not 
be  content  with  carrying  out  the  prescribed  works. 
The  gaining  of  the  indulgence  must,  if  the  con¬ 
science  were  burdened  with  mortal  sin,  be  pre¬ 
ceded  by  repentance  and  confession.  Only  after 
the  forgiveness  of  the  sin  could  the  punishment 
due  to  it  be  remitted.  Thus  it  was  not  the  alms, 
nor  indeed  any  external  work,  that  here  deter¬ 
mined  whether  or  not  anyone  was  worthy  of  an 
indulgence,  but  the  contrite  disposition,  the  earnest 


16  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


turning  away  from  sin.  Therefore  it  is  well  to 
observe  that  through  the  indulgence  the  peniten¬ 
tial  works  were  remitted  only  in  so  far  as  they 
were  considered  as  satisfying  for  punishment  due, 
and  not  in  so  far  as  they  work  for  holiness  and 
make  men  stronger  in  the  struggle  against  evil. 

Now  a  word  upon  the  so-called  alms-indul¬ 
gences,  that  is,  those  indulgences  which  involved 
a  contribution  to  some  good  work.  That  these 
indulgences  in  the  course  of  time  were  the  occa¬ 
sion  of  many  abuses  is  universally  known.  Nev¬ 
ertheless,  the  idea  by  which  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  were  led  to  introduce  alms-indulgences 
is  fundamentally  unassailable :  it  was  the  ancient 
Christian  view  that  alms  can  contribute  towards 
the  blotting  out  of  sin  and  the  punishment  due 
to  sin. 

This  view  is  found  in  Scripture  (Tobias,  IV, 
1 1 ;  XII,  9 ;  Ecclesiasticus,  III,  33 ;  Daniel,  IV, 
24;  Luke,  XI,  41)  ;  it  was  often  expressed  in  the 
works  of  the  Fathers;  and  how  thoroughly  the 
faithful  in  the  early  Middle  Ages  were  saturated 
with  this  idea  is  evident  from  the  very  numerous 
deeds  of  gift  of  that  time.  Again  and  again  in 
the  introduction  to  these  deeds  the  idea  is  repeated 
that  one  can  through  alms,  pious  foundations,  and 
gifts  to  the  Church  or  convents  more  easily  obtain 
from  God  the  full  forgiveness  of  one’s  sins.  As 
the  faithful  themselves  through  alms  and  pious 
foundations  hoped  to  obtain  the  full  pardon  of 
their  sins,  so  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  could 
commute  the  imposed  or  to-be-imposed  penances 
into  alms  (redemptions).  Or  in  consideration 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


17 


of  the  alms  which  were  to  be  paid,  and  as  a  reward 
therefor,  the  Church  could  moderate  the  penances 
through  the  bestowal  of  indulgences. 

Today  collections  are  taken  up  for  good  works, 
and  each  one  is  free  to  give  or  to  refuse.  It  was 
not  otherwise  in  the  Middle  Ages.  That  the 
popes  and  bishops  imparted  spiritual  favors  in 
order  to  incite  the  faithful  to  greater  generosity 
cannot  with  justice  be  condemned.  If  the  support 
of  a  useful  public  work  is  a  good,  praiseworthy 
action,  then  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  can  re¬ 
ward  it  even  with  spiritual  favors.  Thence  it  fol¬ 
lows  that  the  custom  of  giving  indulgences  to  the 
promoters  of  useful  public  works,  and  the  conse¬ 
quent  connection  of  indulgences  with  money,  is 
not  to  be  condemned  off-hand. 

This  custom  that  was  so  widespread  in  the 
Middle  Ages  corresponded  to  the  spirit  of  that 
time.  “While  today  lotteries  are  conducted  for 
charitable  purposes,  for  the  building  of  churches 
and  in  favor  of  useful  public  institutions,  in  the 
Middle  Ages  indulgences  were  offered.  Both  his¬ 
torical  periods  are  thereby  strikingly  character¬ 
ized.  In  the  Middle  Ages  the  soul’s  salvation 
was  the  mightiest  motive  of  human  action;  today 
avarice  and  the  snatching  after  easy  money  have 
become  dominant.”^ 

On  account  of  the  connection  of  indulgences 
with  money  the  Church  is,  indeed,  often  accused 
by  her  opponents  of  having  “sold”  indulgences 
for  money.  Similar  accusations  were  decisively 

®G.  Ratzinger,  Geschichte  der  kirchlichen  Armenpflege,  p.  398. 
Freiburg,  1884. 


18  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


answered  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  thir¬ 
teenth  century  by  one  of  the  most  famous  con¬ 
temporary  theologians  of  Paris,  William  of  Au¬ 
vergne.  Against  “the  enemies  of  truth,”  the  Wal- 
denses  of  that  time,  he  proved  that  in  the  granting 
of  indulgences  there  could  be  no  question  of  “mer¬ 
chandising,”  since  they  were  not  granted  for 
money.  The  bishop  who  imparted  an  indulgence 
for  the  building  of  a  church  did  not  think  of  the 
money,  but  of  the  honor  of  God  and  the  salvation 
of  souls.  If  the  church  were  built,  God  would  be 
glorified  and  graces  bestowed  on  the  faithful. 
But  as  the  church  would  not  be  built  on  account  of 
money,  although  by  means  of  money;  so  the  in¬ 
dulgence  would  be  granted  not  for  money,  but  for 
the  glory  of  God — although  not  without  money, 
since  the  church  could  not  be  built  without  money. ^ 

In  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Bamberger  cathe¬ 
dral  preacher,  Frederick  Förner,  sought  to  justify 
the  alms-indulgences  in  similar  wise :  “Beloved, 
,tell  me,  if  a  man  gives  a  dollar  to  a  poor  man, 
.does  it  follow  that  God  gives  him  Heaven  for 
the  money?  The  money  is  not  only  not  worth 
Heaven,  but  it  cannot  merit  Heaven.  .  It  is  the 
good  work  of  mercy,  through  which  the  dollar  is 
given  to  ,  the  poor  man  that,  according  to  the 
promise  of  Christ,  merits  such  heavenly  reward/* 
So  also  the  indulgences  are  granted  “not  for 
money,  but  only  for  the  good  work  of  alms¬ 
giving.  ^ 

"'Gullelmi  AlvernI,  Opera  omnia,  I,  550,  Aureliae,  1674. 

Fr.  Förner,  Vom  Ablass  und  Jubeljahr  orthodoxischer  und 
summarischer  Bericht,  146,  Ingolstadt,  i‘;99.  * 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


19 


In  the  light  of  these  introductory  remarks 
one  can  judge  more  justly  of  the  indulgences 
that  in  the  Middle  Ages  were  so  frequently 
granted  for  objects  of  public  utility. 


SECTION  I 


INDULGENCES  FOR  ECCLESIAS¬ 
TICAL  AND  CHARITABLE 

OBJECTS 


!•  CHURCH-BUILDING 


mf  MONG  the  works  of  public  utility  that  were 
powerfully  aided  by  indulgences  church¬ 
building  easily  takes  first  place.  Who  could 
enumerate  all  the  medieval  cathedrals,  parochial, 
collegiate,  and  conventual  churches  which  since 
the  eleventh  century  have  in  good  part  been  built, 
endowed,  and  supported  by  money  from  indul¬ 
gences?  “It  would  be  well  worth  while,”  writes 
a  widely  known  historian,  “to  settle  what  buildings 
of  the  gothic  period  were  erected  with  the  help  of 
indulgences,  whether  granted  by  bishops  or  popes. 
I  have  known  so  many  of  this  kind,  that  I  do  not 
think  I  am  going  too  far  in  saying  that  the  major¬ 
ity  of  the  great  buildings  were  put  up  through  the 
assistance  of  indulgences.”^  For  the  late  gothic 
period  this  is  undoubtedly  saying  too  little.  In 
the  innumerable  church-buildings  that  were  under¬ 
taken  especially  in  the  fifteenth  century,  the  indul¬ 
gence  almost  everywhere  played  a  more  or  less 
important  role.^ 

How  significant,  oftentimes,  was  this  role,  is 
shown  by  the  history  of  the  Kaiserdom  in  Speyer. 
When  this  celebrated  church,  which  in  the  year 
1450  had  been  partially  destroyed  by  fire,^  was  to 

lA.  Schulte,  Die  Fugger  in  Rome  1495-1523,  p.  74.  Leipzig, 
1904. 

'On  the  activity  of  that  time  in  church-building  consult  Jans¬ 
sen,  Geschichte  des  deutsches  Volkes,  I,  iSsff. 

*J.  Geissei,  Der  Kaiserdom  zu  Speyer,  p.  1570.  Köln,  1876. 

23 


24  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


be  rebuilt,  Pope  Nicholas  V  on  May  i,  1451, 
granted  a  plenary  indulgence  for  this  purpose. 
The  indulgence  might  be  gained  at  any  time  during 
five  months  and  was  to  be  preached  in  the  dioceses 
of  Speyer,  Worms,  Strassburg  and  Basel.^  As  to 
the  results  of  the  preaching  of  this  indulgence  a 
contemporary  chronicler  the  Weissenburger  patri¬ 
cian,  Eikhardt  Artzt,  gives  a  detailed  account.® 
He  relates  how  an  indulgence  “of  all  sins  from 
punishment  and  guilt” — as  frequently  the  plenary 
indulgences  were  then  called,  especially  if  special 
jurisdiction  for  the  confessors  was  connected  with 
them® — had  been  obtained,  and  indeed  for  the 
faithful  of  four  dioceses.  “On  this  account  there 
was  such  a  great  journeying  to  Speyer  that  always 
fifty  and  often  a  hundred  priests  with  their  stoles 
sat  hearing  confessions.  And  on  the  church  doors 
in  Speyer  there  was  written  in  big  letters  in  Latin 
and  in  German:  In  this  place  is  full  pardon  of 
all  sins  for  punishment  and  guilt.  This  indul- 


*A  copy  of  the  unpublished  indulgence  bulls  is  found  in  a 
manuscript  in  the  Munich  Staatsbibliothek,  Cod.  lat.  17833,  fol. 
391:  “Nos  .  .  .  omnibus  vere  penitentibus  et  confessis  de  dictis 
civitatibus  et  dyocesibus  qui  dictam  ecclesian  devote  visitaverint 
et  pro  restauratione  ipsius  ecclesiae  secundum  suarum  quali- 
tatem  facultatum  manus  porrexerint  adjutrices,  plenariam  remis- 
sionem  et  omnium  peccatorum  suorum  indulgentiam  elargimur.” 
In  the  same  place  (fol.  390)  is  a  German  translation  of  the  bull. 
Another  German  translation  is  contained  in  the  Speyer  chronicle 
published  by  F.  J.  Mone,  Quellensammlung  der  badischen 
Landes-geschichte,  I,  386!!.  Karlsruhe,  1848. 

®Mone,  Badisches  Archiv  für  Vaterlandskunde,  II,  zszff. 
Karlsruhe,  1827. 

®On  the  so-called  indulgences  from  punishment  and  guilt  in 
the  Middle  Ages  consult  the  author’s  treatment  in  Zeitschrift 
für  katholische  Theologie,  XXXVI  (1912),  67!!.,  253ff. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


25 


gence  lasted  five  months,  March,  April,  May, 
June  and  July.” 

In  a  second  bull,  in  1452,  the  Pope  allowed 
the  indulgence  solemnities  to  be  renewed  for  the 
three  months  of  March,  April  and  May.  In  the 
first  year  especially,  many  pilgrims,  even  of  the 
upper  classes,  came  to  Speyer.  “Many  great 
princes,  counts,  lords,  knights  and  squires  from 
the  above-named  dioceses  sought  this  grace  and 
indulgence.”  Consequently  “great  good”  came 
to  Speyer.  ^^Thiis  was  this  cathedral  rebuilt  and 
finished  through  the  above-mentioned  grace  and 
indulgence.  And  many  people  were  of  the  opin¬ 
ion  that  God  had  arranged  this  thing  so  that 
the  greatest  sins,  that  otherwise  might  have  been 
concealed,  would  be  confessed.” 

Therefore,  there  was  the  conviction  that  the 
indulgence  had  not  only  brought  much  money  to 
Speyer,  but  that  it  had  also  caused  many  sinners 
to  make  a  good  confession. 

That  in  those  times  it  was  known  how  to  join 
both  objects,  the  financial  and  the  soul-seeking,  in 
the  indulgence  solemnities,  is  shown  by  the  annals 
of  the  cathedral  of  Milan.  When  the  church 
corporation,  with  Count  Francesco  Sforza  and 
Archbishop  Giovanni  Visconti,  at  their  head, 
again  sought  an  indulgence  in  Rome  as  they  had 
often  previously  done,  they  not  only  represented 
that  it  would  be  useful  for  the  construction  of  the 
projected  gigantic  church;  but  they  likewise 
pointed  out  as  a  foremost  consideration  that, 
thanks  to  the  jubilee  indulgence,  the  grievous 
sins  which  had  been  committed  in  the  last  fear- 


26  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


ful  war  could  through  sincere  penance  be  atoned 
forJ 

In  a  truly  model  way  the  government  of  Berne 
understood  the  value  of  an  indulgence  as  a  source 
of  money  and  a  means  of  moral  regeneration. 

In  the  year  1421  Berne  had  begun  the  erection 
of  a  new  minster  dedicated  to  St.  Vincent.  For 
the  completion  and  fitting  up  of  the  vast  building 
no  sufficient  means  were  at  hand.  So  the  magis¬ 
trate,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  had 
recourse  to  an  indulgence,  and  in  1473  he  sought 
from  Sixtus  IV  a  “Romfahrt.”  Thus  at  that  time 
they  called  the  great  indulgence  solemnities.  In 
this  connection  it  should  be  pointed  out  that  during 
such  a  solemnity  one  could  gain  the  same  indul¬ 
gence  as  by  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome  in  the  year  of 
jubilee.® 

In  response  to  the  Bernese  petition,  the  Pope 
on  May  30,  1473,  issued  an  indulgence  bull  in 
virtue  of  which  anyone  in  Berne  could  through  a 
contrite  confession,  a  pious  visit  to  the  church, 
and  alms  for  the  completion  of  the  minster,  share 
in  the  same  indulgences  that  were  to  be  gained  in 
the  Eternal  City  during  the  jubilee.  But  the  con¬ 
dition  was  laid  down  that  the  indulgence  solem- 

Annali  della  fabrica  del  duomo  di  Milano,  II,  145,  Milano, 
1877:  “Sed  quod  ante  omnia  considerandum  est,  ut  peccata 
nefanda  et  gravia,  quae  (pro  dolor)  praeteriti  belli  immanitas 
parturivit,  hac  vestra  gratiosa  indulgentia  .  .  .  extinguantur  et 
convertentibus  se  ad  poenitentiae  gratiam  ...  in  Domino  re- 
laxentur.” 

®A.  Fluri  (Die  Beziehungen  Berns  zu  den  Buchdruckern  in 
Basel,  Zürich  und  Genf,  1476-1536,  p.  9,  Bern,  1913)  erroneously 
thinks  that  the  indulgence  was  so  called  “because  it  imparted 
absolution  for  such  sins  as  otherwise  could  be  expiated  for  only 
by  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome.” 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


27 


nities  should  take  place  only  after  the  expiration 
of  the  great  jubilee  of  the  year  1475.® 

So  the  Bernese  Romfahrt  was  fixed  for  Michael¬ 
mas,  1476.  The  time  of  grace  was  to  last  ten 
days.  Of  its  progress  the  Bernese  chronicler, 
Diebold  Schilling,  has  left  a  detailed  account^® 
Schilling  (+  i486),  who  had  been  a  member  of 
the  Great  Council  since  1468,  lived  in  the  midst 
of  the  events  and  wrote  down  what  he  himself 
saw  and  heard.  He  is  a  thoroughly  trustworthy 
historian  whose  narrative  “bears  the  stamp  of 
truth  and  absolute  honesty.” 

In  order  to  make  known  in  wider  circles  the 
favor  that  had  been  granted,  the  Bernese  Coun¬ 
cil  had  more  than  a  thousand  copies  of  the  indul¬ 
gence  bull  printed  in  Basel.  These  were  dis¬ 
tributed  in  every  direction.  Invitations  went  as 
far  as  Cologne. They  could  therefore  count 
on  a  great  concourse. 

But  it  was  still  necessary  to  find  someone  who 
would  explain  the  indulgence  bull  to  the  people 
and  who  during  the  Romfahrt  would  exhort  them 
to  penance.  This  preacher  they  found  in 
Johannes  Heynlin,  whom  Janssen  justly  praises 
as  being  a  man  “whose  earnestness  and  strength 
of  character  equalled  his  universal  learning,  elo- 

“Ablassbulle  Sixtus’  IV,  zugunsten  des  St.  Vinzen-Münsters, 
T473.  First  completely  printed  by  M.  Flach  in  Basel  by  order 
of  the  Municipal  Council  of  Berne.  Facsimile  reproduction 
according  to  the  only  known  copy  of  the  Kestner-Museum  in 
Hanover. 

^®Die  Berner  Chronik  des  Diebold  Schilling.  Hrsg.  von  G. 
Tobler,  II,  98ff.,  Berne,  1901. 

“The  pertinent  resolutions  are  given  by  Tobler  in  his  edition 
of  Schilling,  II,  98,  Anra.  5. 


28  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


quence,  and  energy.”^“  Heynlin,  born  in  143^ 
at  Stein  near  Pforzheim,  was  at  that  time  pastor 
of  St.  Theodore  in  Little-Basel.  Previously  he 
had  labored  for  several  years  as  professor  of 
philosophy  and  theology  in  the  Paris  university. 
Now  he  was  called  to  Berne  as  preacher  of  the 
indulgence. 

On  the  Sunday  before  the  feast  of  St.  Michael 
— which  in  1476  fell  on  Sunday — the  “manifold 
holy  indulgence  was  ushered  in,”  narrates  Schil¬ 
ling,  “with  the  ringing  of  all  the  bells  and  with 
great  joy.”  First  the  papal  bull  must  be  read  and 
expounded.  This  was  done  “by  the  very  learned 
Fr.  John  of  Stein,  doctor  of  Sacred  Scripture,” 
who  explained  from  the  pulpit  “how  the  great 
indulgence  could  be  gained.”  Thereafter  Heyn¬ 
lin  spoke  daily  to  the  people  in  the  minster.  The 
chronicler  relates  that  every  day  “two  excellent, 
praiseworthy  sermons  were  preached,”  one  early 
in  the  morning,  the  other  in  the  afternoon,  “by 
the  aforementioned  Dr.  John  of  Stein  and  a 
pious  Franciscan  Observant,  both  of  whom  had 
been  invited  to  Berne  and  had  been  very  honor¬ 
ably  entertained.” 

The  preachers  could  not  complain  of  paucity 
of  hearers.  Not  only  the  Bernese,  but  also  many 
outsiders,  wished  to  avail  themselves  of  the  grace 
of  the  indulgence  time.  Even  by  the  opening  of 
the  solemnities  “very  many  strangers”  were  pres- 

^^Janssen  I,  142. 

^’Hossfeld  has  devoted  an  admirable  monograph  to  this  pious 
and  distinguished  man  in  the  Basler  Zeitschrift  für  Geschichte 
und  Altertumskunde,  VI  (1907),  309-356,  VII  (1908),  79-219, 
235-43I'  The  indulgence  solemnity  of  1476  is  described  VII, 
187!!. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


29 


ent.  Full  fifty  confessors  were  busy  at  the  start 
“from  early  morning  till  night.”  “One  might 
have  thought  that  was  enough.”  But  they  could 
not  handle  the  crowd  thronging  around  the  con¬ 
fessionals,  and  many  had  to  be  sent  away  un¬ 
shriven.  “The  Fathers,  as  announced  in  the  min¬ 
ster,  have  turned  in  every  direction  to  secure  more 
confessors  so  that  everyone  might  confess  the 
most  serious  sins  with  little  ceremony  or  formal¬ 
ity  because  of  the  crowd  of  people,  and  so  that 
everyone  might  have  contrition  and  come  to  con¬ 
fession.”  The  people  followed  the  urging  of 
the  preachers,  and  in  the  course  of  the  week  there 
were  over  eighty  confessors.  “And  could  more 
have  been  found  who  were  good  and  useful,  they 
also  would  have  been  taken.” 

At  that  time  it  was  yet  customary  that  persons 
who  had  committed  some  serious  public  sin  should 
undergo  a  public  penance.  In  the  Bernese  Rom- 
fahrt,  according  to  Schilling,  there  were  “about 
four  thousand”  such  public  penitents — men  and 
women.  They  were  led  by  appointed  priests 
“into  the  minster  and  around  it  from  one  con¬ 
fessor  to  another,  and  the  men  and  women  sin¬ 
ners  were  obliged  to  receive  a  public  penance 
from  each  of  the  appointed  confessors  separately, 
to  kneel  before  them,  and  to  be  absolved.  And 
in  this  no  one,  either  from  Berne  or  elsewhere, 
was  spared;  for  whosoever  had  sinned  publicly 
had  to  do  public  penance  according  to  the  regula¬ 
tion  and  command  of  the  confessors.”  Also 
“many  public  penitents,  men  and  women,”  took 
part  in  the  great  procession  on  the  feast  of  the 


so  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


Archangel  Michael,  “the  men  naked  [that  is,  as 
is  clear  from  many  contemporary  sources,  with 
the  upper  part  of  the  body  stripped]  and  the 
women  barefoot  with  their  hair  hanging  down, 
as  is  right  for  such  public  sinners.” 

Every  day  “very  noble  services”  were  sung  by 
the  auxiliary  bishops  of  Basel  and  Constance  and 
other  prelates  who  had  been  invited  to  the  indul¬ 
gence  solemnities.  On  the  Sunday  after  St.  Mich¬ 
ael’s  the  Bishop  of  Sitten  sang  High  Mass.  On 
this  occasion  the  great  minster  was  so  crowded 
“that  it  could  not  well  have  accommodated  any 
more.”  On  the  following  Monday  the  indulgence 
was  again  announced  “with  the  ringing  of  all 
the  bells  and  great  devotion.”  The  sum  contrib¬ 
uted  for  the  minster  was  not  small.  “The  money 
was  very  great,”  says  Schilling.  “And  as  the 
Romfahrt  ended:,  the  money  in  very  deep  chests 
was  committed  and  surrendered  to  the  church 
wardens,  so  that  they  could  with  it  provide  for 
the  completion  of  the  minster,  and  might  use  or 
spend  it  in  no  other  way.”  The  chronicler  ends 
with  the  pious  wish  that  the  indulgence  “may 
result  in  salvation  for  all  those  who  have  sought 
it  with  contrition,  confession,  and  devotion.” 

For  the  Michaelmas  period  in  1478  Berne  re¬ 
quested  of  Sixtus  IV  a  new  Romfahrt  and  “indul¬ 
gence  of  all  sins  for  punishment  and  guilt,”  as 
Schilling  expresses  it.^^  Of  the  money  that  would 
result,  two-thirds  would  belong  to  the  minster- 

*^Schilling,  iSyff.  Hossfeld,  VII,  2o6ff.  C.  Wirz,  Regesten 
zur  Schweizergeschichte  aus  den  päpstlichen  .  Archiven  1447-- 
,.»513,  i28f.,  Berne,  1913. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


31 


building  and  one-third  to  the  Pope  for  “resistance 
to  the  Turks  and  other  unbelievers.” 

Heynlin,  who  in  the  meantime  had  been  called 
to  Tübingen  as  pastor  and  professor  of  theology, 
was  again  pressingly  invited  to  preach  the  ser¬ 
mons.  So  in  September,  1478,  he  came  a  second 
time  to  Berne.  The  day  before  St.  Michael’s  the 
Romfahrt  proper  began  with  the  reading  and 
explanation  of  the  indulgence  bull.  As  before, 
that  was  Heynlin’s  task;  who  now  also  during 
the  indulgence  time  “preached  in  the  minster  once 
or  twice  every  day  and  gave  the  people  very 
praiseworthy  and  good  instructions.”  “Other 
doctors  and  learned  Observants”  did  the  same. 

The  crowds  were  again  very  large.  “Many 
people  came  to  Berne  from  Germany  and  Italy.” 
Confessors  were  employed  “by  the  hundred.” 
More  than  twelve  hundred  public  penitents,  men 
and  women,  took  part  in  the  procession.  One  of 
these  women,  who  was  separated  from  her  hus¬ 
band,  came  from  Zürich  in  order  to  share  in  the 
jubilee’s  grace.  When  she  returned  the  Bernese 
Council  gave  her  a  letter  to  the  Magistrate  at 
Zürich  beseeching  him  “kindly  to  help  the  wo¬ 
man,  that  she  might  come  again  to  her  husband; 
for  she  has  here  in  the  Romfahrt  confessed  and 
done  penance  and  is  willing  in  the  future  to  con¬ 
duct  herself  in  a  proper  wifely  manner.”^®  How 
many  erring  souls,  such  as  this  woman,  were, 
thanks  to  the  Romfahrt,  led  back  to  a  better  frame 
of  mind ! 

In  the  following  year  Berne  received  for  the 

^'Printed  by  Tobler  in  his  Schilling,  II,  194. 


32  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


third  time  from  Pope  Sixtus  IV  an  “indulgence 
of  all  sins  from  punishment  and  guilt  in  the  min¬ 
ster  of  St.  Vincent  for  the  sake  of  the  noteworthy 
building  of  the  same.”^®  The  Romfahrt  was  to 
take  place  in  Lent  of  1480. 

Again  the  Bernese  thought  of  the  well-remem¬ 
bered  Heynlin,  who  had  recently  been  appointed 
pastor  in  Baden-Baden.  In  a  letter  of  the  sev¬ 
enth  of  January,  1480,  the  Bernese  besought  the 
Markgrave  Christopher  of  Baden  to  give  them 
the  celebrated  preacher  for  the  Romfahrt,  “since 
they  sought  an  expounder  of  God’s  word  who 
through  wholesome  teaching  knew  how  to  sum¬ 
mon  piety  to  their  souls.”  To  Heynlin,  also, 
“their  tried  friend,”  they  directed  a  pressing  re¬ 
quest  to  come  to  Berne,  since  they  sorely  needed 
his  “wholesome  teaching.”  The  Bernese  City 
Council  in  no  wise  wished  the  well-disposed  man 
to  come  only  “in  order  that  they  might  parade 
him  during  the  Romfahrt,  or  only  so  that  they 
might  use  him  to  fill  the  coffers  destined  for  the 
church  building  fund;  they  really  entertained  the 
same  God-fearing  sentiments  as  he.”^^ 

Heynlin  declared  himself  ready  to  grant  the 
wishes  of  the  Bernese.  On  Laetare  Sunday  he 
began  his  sermons.  So  thoroughly  did  he  please 
the  Bernese  that  at  the  end  of  the  indulgence  so¬ 
lemnities  they  approached  the  Markgrave  with 
the  request  that  the  distinguished  teacher  and 
preacher  remain  till  the  end  of  Lent,  since  the 
whole  community  “has  a  great  desire  for  him.” 

^*Schilling,  219^.  Hossfeld,  VII, 

‘Tiossfeld,  250. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


33 


Heynlin  again  perfectly  fulfilled  the  hopes 
placed  in  him.  “The  Lent  of  1480,”  writes  the 
Bernese  church  historian,  E.  Blösch,  “was 
throughout  not  merely  a  time  of  superstitious 
ceremonies,  religious  theatricals,  or  unscrupulous 
traffic  in  indulgences,  but  according  to  the  inten¬ 
tion  of  the  magistrates  and  thanks  to  the  compel¬ 
ling  preaching  of  the  doctor  it  was  a  period  of 
penance,  of  conversion,  and  of  spiritual  improve¬ 
ment.”^®  The  more  than  a  week’s  activity  of  the 
preacher  left  its  traces  also  in  the  public  and  civic 
life.  Through  his  influence  were  enacted  a  series 
of  municipal  ordinances  aiming  at  the  sanctifica¬ 
tion  of  holy  days,  the  punishment  of  slander  and 
cursing,  the  removal  of  various  abuses;  more¬ 
over,  by  his  advice  a  new  school  house  was  built 
and  a  better  qualified  teacher  employed.^® 

The  above-quoted  Protestant  historian,  Blösch, 
writes  further:  “We  are  led  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  vigorous  moral  preacher  during  the  short 
time  of  his  stay  exercised  an  unusual  influence 
and  that  he  conveyed  in  no  small  degree  to  wider 
circles  of  the  Bernese  that  desire  for  serious  moral 
conduct  in  the  public  life  that  had  moved  the  City 
Council  to  invite  him.”^° 

From  this  one  can  see  that  the  indulgence  so¬ 
lemnities,  when  they  were  well  conducted,  could 
work  manifold  blessings.  To  be  sure,  the  indul¬ 
gence  practice  of  the  late  Middle  Ages  was  often 
accompanied  by  grievous  abuses.  But  one  would 

“Jahrbuch  für  Schweizerische  Geschichte  IX  (1884),  53. 

“Hossfeld,  253ff. 

^“Jahrbuch,  IX,  54. 


34  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


be  guilty  of  great  one-sidedness  if  he  spoke  only 
of  abuses.  There  is  not  only  the  financial  stand¬ 
point  to  be  considered  in  the  indulgences  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Not  without  reason  does  Profes¬ 
sor  Emil  Göller  warn  us  in  this  connection  “not 
to  forget  the  religious  motive. It  cannot  be 
denied  that  the  many  indulgence  sermons  and 
innumerable  confessions  connected  therewith 
helped  many  souls  to  be  saved.  On  this  point 
the  famous  Bishop  of  Hildesheim,  Cardinal  Ber¬ 
tram,  writes:  “Such  confessions  at  the  time  of  the 
solemn  granting  of  indulgences,  bound  up  as  they 
were  with  gripping  sermons,  solemn  worship  of 
God,  and  with  works  of  penance  and  prayer,  had 
the  significance  for  that  time  that  a  Catholic 
mission  has  today.”^^ 

Heinrich  Schrörs,  the  Bonn  church  historian, 
expressed  himself  in  a  similar  sense.  Together 
with  an  energetic  stressing  of  the  serious  abuses 
that  the  indulgence  practice  of  the  time  carried 
with  it,  he  called  special  attention  to  the  circum¬ 
stances  which  were  appropriate  “To  make  the 
indulgence  preaching  an  opportunity  for  penance 
and  the  renewal  of  the  religious  life.”  “Concern¬ 
ing  this  side  of  indulgences,”  adds  Schrörs,  “much 
of  value  will  perhaps  be  yielded  from  local 
sources. How  well  founded  is  this  remarks  is 
shown  by  the  indulgence  solemnities  at  Berne. 

Certainly  the  fact  that  a  man  such  as  Heynlin 
— whose  religious  earnestness  and  vigorous  moral 

^^Göttingische  Gelehrte  Anzeigen,  1905,  655. 

*Ad.  Bertram,  Geschichte  des  Bistums  Hildesheim,  I,  477, 
Hildesheim,  1899. 

^Wissenschaftliche  Beilage  zur  Germania.  1904,  Nr.  14. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


35 


character  were  praised  even  by  Protestants — re¬ 
peatedly  appeared  as  the  indulgence  preacher,  and 
in  the  year  1476  praised  the  Bernese  jubilee  as  the 
“most  useful,  the  most  admirable,  the  most  fruit¬ 
ful,  the  most  joyful  message  which  had  ever  come 
to  Berne, is  proof  enough  that  the  indulgence 
practice  of  that  time  was  not  so  “demoralizing” 
as  some  present-day  opponents  of  indulgences 
would  like  to  make  us  believe. 

Those  who  know  how  to  speak  only  of  the 
pernicious  consequences  of  indulgences  ought  at 
least  to  remember  that  indulgences  have  contrib¬ 
uted  very  largely  to  making  possible  the  building 
and  support  of  numerous  churches.  But  since 
from  a  cultural  standpoint  these  churches  have 
poured  forth  immeasurable  blessings  upon  Chris¬ 
tian  peoples,  one  must  attribute  to  indulgences  a 
share  in  this  prosperous  activity.  Even  present- 
day  Protestants  owe  to  indulgences,  in  part  at 
least,  many  beautiful  churches  and  many  charitable 
institutions  that  have  come  down  from  previous 
Catholic  times.  In  this  connection  the  above- 
mentioned  minster  of  Berne  comes  to  mind. 
Though,  of  course,  it  is  gross  hyperbole  when  a 
Mecklenburg  theologian  asserts:  “It  is  a  fact, 
every  sinking  tower,  every  crumbling  stone,  was 
dressed  and  set  by  indulgences.”^^  There  is,  how¬ 
ever,  no  doubt  but  that  many  noble  churches  were 
built  and  supported  by  the  help  obtained  from 
indulgence  alms.  But  just  in  that  financial  as- 

*‘Hossfeld,  VII,  188. 

**11.  Schnell,  Mecklenburg  im  Zeitalter  der  Reformation,  42, 
Berlin,  1900. 


36  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


sistance  this  theologian  sees  a  regrettable  aberra¬ 
tion.  “If  the  Catholic  Church  produced  noble 
and  truly  great  church  buildings  in  Mecklenburg 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  yet  many  a  stone  for  them 
was  laid  through  a  mistaken  piety  of  those  who 
thought  to  make  holiness  serve  their  own  selfish 
ends.”^® 

But  after  piety  had  been  deflected  upon  other 
paths  through  Lutheran  teaching,  how  were  the 
churches  of  God  cared  for  in  Mecklenburg? 
There  was  then  no  more  talk  of  building  churches; 
on  the  contrary,  not  a  few  churches  were  torn 
down  and  princely  castles  built  with  their  stones; 
others  were  turned  to  worldly  uses,  while  those 
that  remained  dedicated  to  worship  fell  into  the 
greatest  neglect.  A  Protestant  author,  son  of  a 
Mecklenburg  minister,  writes  on  this  point:  “In 
the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  visi¬ 
tation  records  are  full  of  complaints  about  the 
shocking  appearance  generally  presented  by  the 
churches  and  cemeteries  throughout  the  land. 
This  neglect  was  afterwards  much  increased 
through  the  Thirty  Years’  War.  The  situation 
was  later  somewhat  improved;  but  generally  these 
localities  remained  in  that  neglected  condition 
until  a  few  years  back,  and  unfortunately  some 
even  to  our  own  day.  I  myself  remember  having 
seen  in  Mecklenburg  some  churches  that  abounded 
in  filth  and  rubbish,  and  which  in  their  delapi- 
dated  condition  looked  more  like  old  lumber  rooms 
than  like  churches.  To  the  honor  of  the  Catholics 
(at  least  to  those  in  Germany,  where  alone  I  have 

*lbld.  45. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


37 


had  the  opportunity  of  observing)  I  must  add 
that  I  have  never  seen  among  them  a  similar 
neglect  of  churches,  but  on  the  contrary  even 
the  smallest  country  churches  were  always  clean 
and  cheerfully  arranged.”^^ 

In  the  Catholic  Middle  Ages  Christians  were 
not  content  with  putting  up  monumental  church 
buildings ;  they  moreover  strove  eagerly  with  the 
help  of  painting  and  sculpture  to  adorn  the  monu¬ 
ments  of  ecclesiastical  architecture.  “If  the 
walls  of  the  church  were  arranged  so  as  to  allow 
it,  the  staring  spaces  were  usually  made  alive  and 
filled  inside  and  out  with  sculptures  inculcating 
the  holy  teachings  and  traditions  of  Christianity, 
all  persons  and  objects  of  which  sculpture  illumi¬ 
nated  spiritual  devotion,  like  ‘the  preachers  of  a 
higher  life.’  The  Christian  spirit  pressed  forward 
for  the  purpose  of  adorning  and  ennobling  with 
the  most  beautiful  and  magnificent  objects  that  the 
earth  affords  and  that  the  power  of  the  human 
soul  can  enhance,  the  place  where  the  Savior  dwells 
united  with  men  in  love  and  grace.  In  this  way 
sculpture  and  painting  grew  out  of  architecture 
and  in  the  service  of  the  Church  reached  the  no¬ 
blest  expression  of  the  Christian  spirit  and  life.”^® 

Likewise  in  this  artistic  adornment  of  God’s 
houses  indulgences  have  given  admirable  service. 
Of  this  Munich  affords  an  example. 

The  Frauenkirche,  the  second  oldest  parish 
church  in  Munich,  had  in  the  course  of  time  be- 

^E.  Boll,  Geschichte  Mecklenburgs  mit  besonderer  Berück¬ 
sichtigung  der  Kulturgeschichte,  I,  392  f.,  Neubrandenburg,  1855. 

’*Janssen,  I,  2C». 


38  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


come  delapidated;  and  it  was  determined  accord¬ 
ingly  to  raze  the  old  building  in  order  to  erect 
in  its  place  a  much  larger  and  more  beautiful  one. 
In  the  year  1468  the  cornerstone  of  the  new 
church,  the  present  cathedral,  was  laid.  The 
church  corporation  and  the  city  shared  in  the 
expense.  The  former  paid  the  workmen,  while 
the  municipal  council  furnished  the  material.  After 
ten  years  the  gigantic  building  was  completed. 
But  with  its  completion  all  the  available  means 
were  exhausted,  and  the  cost  of  the  interior  dec¬ 
oration  was  still  to  be  defrayed. 

Hence  it  was  decided  to  call  in  the  help  of  the 
Christian  folk  and  to  request  in  Rome  a  jubilee 
indulgence  in  order  to  elicit  the  charitable  contribu¬ 
tions.  On  October  7,  1479,  Sixtus  IV  granted  this 
indulgence  and  even  continued  it  for  three  years. 
The  solemnity  should  take  place  every  Lent  from 
Laetare  Sunday  until  Judica  Sunday.  In  order  to 
make  it  easier  for  the  people  to  gain  the  indul¬ 
gence,  the  Pope  granted  to  the  confessors,  as  in 
time  of  jubilee,  special  jurisdiction.  Two-thirds 
of  the  alms  were  to  go  for  the  decoration  of  the 
church,  and  one-third  for  the  crusade  against 
the  Turks.^® 

The  town  clerk.  Dr.  Hans  Kirchmaier,  gives 
us  a  report  of  the  Munich  jubilee  in  the  municipal 
council’s  records. In  the  beginning  of  the  year 

^The  indulgence  bull  is  to  be  found  among  the  posters  of  the 
Munich  Staatsbibliotek,  VI,  5. 

*“Published  by  K.  A.  Muffat,  Baugeschichte  des  Domes  zu 
Unserer  Lieben  Frau  in  München,  ziff.,  München,  i868.  Cf.  A. 
Mayer,  Die  Domkirche  zu  U.  L.  Frau  in  München,  740., 
München,  1868. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


39 


1480  eight  priests  with  the  necessary  credentials 
and  with  copies  of  the  papal  bull  rode  out  to  the 
neighboring  dioceses,  in  fact  even  to  Bamberg 
and  Würzburg,  to  announce  the  “grace.”  Special 
messengers  had  carried  the  invitations  of  the 
City  Council  to  the  surrounding  cities.  They  had 
not  counted  in  vain  upon  a  participation  of  the 
faithful  in  outlying  districts.  The  congestion  of 
strangers  surpassed  all  expectations.  In  the  first 
year  during  the  indulgence  week  more  than  65,- 
000  pilgrims  came  to  Munich;  in  the  second  year 
24,000;  in  the  third  34,700;  so  that  the  crowd  of 
strangers  for  all  three  years  amounted  to  123,- 
700.  In  order  to  count  this  immense  multitude  a 
very  simple  expedient  was  employed.  Only  the 
four  principal  gates  were  opened;  the  others  re¬ 
mained  closed.  “During  the  three  years,”  relates 
the  town  clerk,  “the  Council  had  the  people  come 
in  through  the  four  gates,  and  a  pea  was  dropped 
in  a  pot  for  each  person  who  came  in  for  the  in¬ 
dulgence.  At  night  the  peas  were  counted.” 

On  the  part  of  the  municipal  authorities  the 
most  far-reaching  arrangements  were  made  so  that 
the  crowd  of  pilgrims  might  not  be  disorderly 
and  that  the  visitors  might  find  appropriate  ac¬ 
commodations.  Every  night  400  armed  men  made 
the  round  of  the  city  in  order  to  keep  the  streets 
safe;  a  watch  of  50  men  sufficed  during  the  day. 
“At  each  of  the  four  principal  gates  eight  men 
were  stationed,  while  the  other  gates  were  locked. 
It  was  forbidden  to  transport  filth  or  manure.  All 
offal  was  burnt  in  caldrons.  From  each  trade  twp 


2  38  1  9 


40  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


men  were  detailed  to  go  around  and  show  the 
people  hostels.” 

For  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  pilgrims  admir¬ 
able  provisions  were  likewise  made.  ‘‘On  account 
of  the  crowd  of  people  two  hundred  and  seventy 
confessors  were  at  first  employed,  and  thereafter 
not  many  less.”  Daily  during  the  indulgence  time 
there  were  “at  least  two  and  often  three  sermons” 
preached  in  the  Frauenkirche. 

From  all  this  one  can  see — to  make  a  paren¬ 
thetical  remark — with  what  little  right  it  has 
so  frequently  been  asserted,  that  the  indulgence 
had  “long  since  been  identified  with  the  forgive¬ 
ness  of  sins.”^^  If  the  people  looked  upon  an 
indulgence  as  the  forgiveness  of  the  guilt  of  sin, 
then  why  did  they  go  to  confession  during  the 
indulgence  time?  Why,  then,  during  the  great 
indulgence  solemnities  were  so  many  confessors 
necessary,  as  was  the  case  in  Munich,  Berne, 
Speyer,  and  other  cities?  This  point  has  been  ad¬ 
mirably  stressed  by  the  Italian  Dominican,  Prie- 
rias,  in  his  work  against  Luther’s  indulgence  the- 

®^Thus  again  recently  O.  Vitense,  Geschichte  von  Mecklenburg, 
150,  Gotha,  1920  (Allgemeine  Staatengeschichte,  III,  ii).  How 
little  this  author  is  qualified  to  give  judgment  in  indulgence 
affairs  is  proved  by  his  remark  (p.  51)  on  Professor  Pegel  of 
the  University  of  Rostock:  “As  early  as  1516  Konrad  Pegel 
came  out  against  the  shameless  traffic  in  indulgences.’'  For  the 
information  of  his  former  pupil,  Count  Magnus  von  Mecklen¬ 
burg,  Pegel  in  1516  published  a  little  work  on  penance,  Dialo- 
ogus  de  poenitentia,  printed  by  D.  Schröder,  Papistisches 
Mecklenburg,  2858-2866,  Wismar,  1741.  In  this  work  Pegel 
did  come  out  against  the  indulgence,  as  different  Mecklenburg 
authorities  assert.  But  the  indulgence  was  not  connected  with 
any  money.  The  booklet  treats  only  of  penance,  and  indeed  in 
a  thoroughly  Catholic  sense — “It  is  papistically  written,”  as  the 
elder  Schröder  has  remarked. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


41 


sis:  Even  the  less  well-informed  people  know 
that  since  they  go  to  confession  to  obtain  for¬ 
giveness  for  their  sins,  the  gaining  of  an  indul¬ 
gence  is  conditioned  upon  first  removing  the  guilt 
of  sin.^^ 

The  total  contributions  for  the  Munich  indul¬ 
gence  in  the  three  years  reached  a  total  of  15,- 
232  gulden.  Of  that  a  third  should  have  been 
paid  to  the  papal  treasury  for  the  war  against 
the  Turks.  In  Rome  they  were  satisfied  with  500 
ducats. Hence,  when  we  take  into  considera¬ 
tion  the  purchasing  power  of  money  at  that  time, 
there  remained  to  the  church  management  a  goodly 
sum  which  could  be  applied  to  the  artistic  decora¬ 
tion  of  the  new  church. 

Such  examples,  which  could  easily  be  multiplied, 
show  the  great  help  that  Christian  art  received 
from  indulgences.  Even  Protestant  scholars  have 
again  and  again  noted  this.  For  example,  the 
American,  H.  C.  Lea,  writes:  “The  stately  struc¬ 
tures  in  which  the  devotion  of  the  Catholic  Mid¬ 
dle  Ages  displayed  itself  could  scarcely  have  been 
completed  without  the  means  furnished  by  indul¬ 
gences,  and  the  arts,  which  found  in  the  Church 
their  most  generous  patron,  would  not  otherwise 
so  quickly  and  so  greatly  have  developed  them¬ 
selves.  The  noble  cathedrals  in  Paris,  Rheims, 
Cologne,  St.  Peter’s  in  Rome,  show  us  in  concrete 
form  the  results  of  preaching  indulgences  through 

*^In  presumptuosas  M.  Luther  conclusiones  de  potestate  pape 
Dialogus.  Ohne  Ort  und  Jahr.  Bl.  C2.  Against  the  remarks 
of  Prierias  Luther  made  no  answer.  (Luthers  Werke,  I,  683, 
Weimarer  Ausg.) 

“Schulte,  Die  Fugger  in  Rom,  I,  258. 


42  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


hundreds  of  years.  So  art  has  every  reason  to  be 
grateful  for  the  advancement  that  she  received 
through  indulgences.”®* 

In  a  study  on  Beverley  Minster,  that  was,  like 
so  many  other  medieval  churches,  built  in  part 
with  indulgence  alms,  an  English  scholar  remarks 
that  an  indulgence  was  in  no  wise,  as  is  popularly 
supposed,  a  forgiveness  of  sins  nor  a  permission 
according  to  one’s  pleasure  to  commit  sin  in  the 
future,  but  merely  a  remission  of  the  penance 
imposed  for  sins  contritely  confessed.  In  and 
for  itself  the  indulgence  was  innocent  enough; 
through  this  means  an  external  penance  was  re¬ 
mitted  in  exchange  for  an  alms  for  good  works. 
“We  cannot  entirely  condemn  a  system  that  has 
given  us  Beverley  Minster,  the  Cathedral  of  York, 
the  chapel  of  Eton  College,  and  so  many  other 
noble  buildings. 

Even  in  the  Middle  Ages,  in  order  to  spur  the 
faithful  to  charitable  contributions,  attention  was 
from  time  to  time  called  to  the  beauty  of  the 
slowly  rising  architectural  monuments.  Thus 
Bishop  Konrad  of  Strassburg  in  the  introduction 
to  an  indulgence  brief  in  the  year  1275  in  behalf 
of  the  Strassburg  minster  pointed  out  how  “the 
work  of  the  Strassburg  church  rose  to  heaven 
like  the  flowers  of  May  in  manifold  beauty,  at¬ 
tracted  the  eyes  of  the  beholders  more  and  more, 
and  rejoiced  them  with  sweet  delightfulness.”^® 

“H.  C.  Lea,  A  History  of  Auricular  Confession  and  Indul¬ 
gences  in  the  Latin  Church,  III,  581,  Phila.,  1896. 

“A.  Fr.  Leach,  Memorials  of  Beverley  Minster,  II  XXXI, 
Durham,  1903  (Publications  of  the  Surtees  Society,  CVIII). 

**Urkundenbuch  der  Stadt  Strassburg,  II,  28,  Strassburg,  1886. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


43 


The  indulgences  referred  to  not  only  incited  to 
generous  almsgiving;  they  also  aroused  many  of 
the  faithful  to  gain  the  indulgence  by  personally 
sharing  in  the  work  of  building.  Throughout 
the  whole  of  the  Middle  Ages  indulgences  were 
frequently  granted  for  personal  labor.  Thus 
Bishop  Heinrich  of  Strassburg  in  the  beginning  of 
the  thirteenth  century  promised  a  special  indul¬ 
gence  to  all  those  who  would  carry  or  haul  stone.^^ 
Bishop  Eberhard  of  Constance  in  1264  granted 
an  indulgence  for  personal  labor  in  building  the 
Augustinian  convent  in  Mindelheim.^®  The  same 
thing  was  done  in  1283  by  Auxiliary  Bishop  Inzel- 
erius  in  favor  of  the  parish  church  in  Hagenau.^® 
Indulgences  for  furnishing  stone  and  sand  are 
noted  repeatedly  in  the  Zürich  records  of  the 
second  half  of  the  thirteenth  century."*®  In  just 
the  same  way  in  England, in  France,"*^  in  Italy 
in  Spain, indulgences  were  often  given  for  per¬ 
sonal  service  in  church  building. 

How  attractive  were  indulgences  of  this  kind 
is  shown  by  an  occurrence  in  Stralsund.  Here  in 
the  year  1384,  as  the  Pomeranian  chronicler, 

*^Urkundenbuch  Strassburg,  I,  135  (1879). 

*®J.  Ph.  Brunnenmayr,  Geschichte  der  Stadt  Mindelheim,  Syff., 
mindelheira,  1821. 

®*C.  Hanauer,  Cartulaire  de  Peglise  S.  George  de  Haguenau, 
17,  Strasbourg,  1898. 

*°Urkundenbuch  der  Stadt  und  Landschaft  Zürich,  IV  (1898) 
260;  V  (1901)  145,  217,  228. 

Dugdale,  The  History  of  St.  Paul’s  Cathedral  in  London, 
14,  London,  1658. 

H.  Albanes,  Gallia  Christiana  novissima,  I,  Instrumenta 
53,  Montbeliard,  1895. 

“Regestum  dementis  Papae  V,  n.  3596,  Romae,  iSSsff.  F. 
Schneider,  Regestum  Volaterranum,  302,  Roma,  1907  (Regesta 
chartarum  Italiae  I). 

**Espana  Sagrada  XLIV,  320,  Madrid,  1826. 


44  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


Thomas  Kantzow  (  +  1542),  relates,  the  tower  of 
the  Lady  Church  had  fallen  and  battered  in  the 
roof  and  the  arches  of  the  church.  The  citizens 
wished  to  repair  the  tower  and  church.  “But  they 
bethought  themselves  that  it  would  take  a  long 
time  and  cost  much  money  before  the  stones  and 
the  rubbish  could  be  cleared  from  the  site.  There¬ 
fore  they  received  an  indulgence  from  the  Bishop 
of  Schwerin  that  each  man  who  removed  a  stone 
or  anything  else  from  the  site  should  have  an  in¬ 
dulgence  of  forty  days.  Wherefore  the  people 
came  in  droves  with  carts  and  wagons,  and 
crowded  to  clean  the  place.  In  this  way  the  site 
was  cleared  in  three  weeks,  that  otherwise  could 
not  have  been  done  for  an  hundred  gulden  and  a 
longer  time.”^®  And  the  Protestant  chronicler 
adds:  “Thus  one  sees  what  the  indulgences  were 
worth  at  that  time.”^® 

In  the  year  1460,  Bishop  Dietrich  of  Branden¬ 
burg  promised  for  a  full  day’s  work  forty  days 
indulgence  to  those  who  on  work  days  would  help 
in  the  rebuilding  of  a  church  in  Berlin,  and  ten 
days  indulgence  to  those  who  on  Sunday  or  holy 
days  worked  four  hours  after  the  midday  meal. 
Since  it  was  for  a  pious  work,  remarked  the  bishop 
in  the  letter,  he  held  that  work  on  Sunday  or  holy 
days  was  allowable;  it  was  also  much  better  to 
serve  God  in  this  way  than  to  be  a  slave  to  inor¬ 
dinate  drink  in  a  public  house. 

‘®Th.  Kantzow,  Chronik  von  Pommern,  in  hochdeutscher 
Mundart.  Hrsg,  von  G.  Gaebel.  Letze  Bearbeitung,  zzyf., 
Stettin,  1897. 

*®Erste  Bearbeitung,  145,  1898. 

*^A.  Fr.  Riedel,  Codex  diplomaticus  Brandenburgensis,  I,  8, 
421,  Berlin,  1847. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


45 


That  the  papacy  also  about  the  middle  of  the 
fifteenth  century  now  and  then  granted  indulgences 
for  manual  labor  is  seen  from  the  indulgence  bull 
which  Eugene  IV  issued  in  favor  of  the  cathedral 
of  St.  Lambert  in  Lüttich,  1443.'^®  Through  this 
bull  all  the  faithful  who  helped  in  repairing  the 
delapidated  cathedral  were,  entitled  to  receive 
from  their  confessor  at  the  hour  of  death  a  plen¬ 
ary  indulgence  after  having  made  a  good  confes¬ 
sion.  For  the  gaining  of  this  indulgence,  in  addi¬ 
tion  to  a  good  confession  and  helping  the  church, 
it  was  also  required  that  one  should  fast  every 
Friday  for  a  year.  In  this  case,  too,  the  afore¬ 
mentioned  assistance  towards  the  repairs  was  not 
inconsiderable.  In  order  to  obtain  the  indulgence 
one  had  either  personally  to  share  in  the  labor 
or  to  pay  the  corresponding  day’s  wage.  For  the 
rich  thirty  days’  work  was  fixed,  for  the  less  well- 
to-do  fifteen  days.’  Most  of  the  people  preferred 
to  pay  a  set  sum  of  money;  yet  there  were  not 
lacking  many  poorer  people  who  declared  them¬ 
selves  ready  for  work.^® 

From  Freiburg  in  Breisgau  it  is  related  that 
during  the  completion  of  the  local  minster  “la¬ 
borers  often  came  from  distant  parts  to  give 
gratuitous  service,  merely  to  share  in  the  indul¬ 
gences  to  be  obtained.”®® 

‘‘Printed  in  the  Chronique  de  Jean  de  Stavelot,  publiee  par 
A.  Borgnet,  513  f.,  Bruxelles,  i86i. 

**P.  Fredericq,  Les  comptes  des  indulgences  papales  emises  au 
profit  de  la  cathedrale  de  Saint-Lambert  ä  Liege,  iqf.,  Bruxelles, 
1903.  Reprint  from  the  Memoires  de  I’Axademie  royale  de 
Belgique,  Tome  LXIII. 

Schreiber,  Geschichte  und  Beschreibung  des  Münsters  zu 
Freiburg  i.  Breisgau,  43,  Freiburg,  1820- 


2.  HOSPITALS.  CHARITABLE  INSTI¬ 
TUTIONS.  WORKS  OF  MERCY. 

SCHOOLS. 


PESIDES  the  churches,  especially  hospitals 
and  manifold  charitable  institutions  were  es¬ 
tablished  through  numerous  grants  of  indulgences. 
In  the  papal  and  episcopal  registers,  we  find  abun¬ 
dant  accounts  on  this  score.^ 

The  documents  in  which  the  popes  and  bishops, 
under  the  promise  of  indulgences,  commended  to 
the  hearts  of  the  faithful  the  care  of  the  poor  and 
the  sick,  frequently  had  a  beautiful  introduction. 
What  Bishop  Guido  of  Pavia  wrote  about  1114 
in  an  indulgence  brief  in  favor  of  the  hospital  in 
Portalbero  is  an  example  of  this:  The  greatest 
of  all  the  commandments,  he  says,  is  the  com¬ 
mandment  of  love,  the  love  of  God  and  of  our 
neighbor.  But  this  love  should  occupy  itself  with 
works  of  mercy,  whereby  we  must  think  that  what¬ 
ever  is  done  to  the  poor  and  the  sick  is  done  to 
Christ  our  Lord.^  In  the  person  of  the  poor  the 
Lord  Himself  is  clothed  and  housed  and  fed  and 
given  drink,  declared  Bishop  Meinhard  of  Hal¬ 
berstadt  in  an  indulgence  brief  dated  1245  for 

^L.  Lallemand,  Historie  de  la  Charite,  99,  Paris,  1906:  “C’est 
surtout  lorsqu’il  s’agit  d’accorder  des  indulgences  en  faveur  des 
bicnfaiteurs  de  maisons  pies  que  les  papes  interviennent  de  la 
fagon  la  plus  active.  Ces  bulles  se  comptent  par  milleurs.  .  .  . 
Ajoutons  les  nombreuses  indulgences  accordes  directement  par 
les  eveques.” 

*Lcge  e  Gabotto,  Documenti  degli  Archiv!  Tortonensi  relativ! 
alia  storia  di  Voghera,  i6f.,  Pinerolo,  1908  (Bibliotcca  della 
socicta  storica  subalpina,  XXXIX). 

46 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


47 


the  Mary  Hospital  in  Brunswick.^  Whoever 
picks  up  a  sick  man  and  refreshes  him  does  this 
to  Christ  the  Lord,  asserts  Boniface  VIII  in  an 
indulgence  brief  dated  1297  for  the  Hospital  of 
Altopascio/  In  another  indulgence  bull  of  the 
year  1299  for  a  hospital  in  Viterbo,  the  same  pope 
remarks  that  a  person  can  hardly  offer  to  God 
a  more  pleasing  sacrifice  than  that  of  taking  up 
the  sick  and  the  poor  and  denying  himself  some¬ 
thing  to  accommodate  them.® 

In  the  indulgence  briefs  we  find  the  most  diverse 
charitable  institutions  mentioned.  The  merit 
which  from  the  eleventh  century  the  brothers  of 
Mt.  St.  Bernard  have  earned  from  travellers  is 
universally  acknowledged.  For  the  support  of  the 
hospices  on  both  the  little  and  big  St.  Bernard, 
collections  had  to  be  instituted.  Even  in  Germany 
the  messengers  of  the  Bernardines  were  not  un¬ 
known.  They,  as  other  hospital  orders,  were  in 
the  field  to  offer  indulgences  to  their  benefactors. 
John  XXII,  who  in  1323  granted  for  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  their  brotherhood  a  remission  of  a  sev¬ 
enth  part  of  the  penance  incurred,  could  in  that 
connection  point  out  that  Innocent  III  and  Clem¬ 
ent  IV  had  already  given  them  the  same  privilege.® 
Clement  V,  also,  in  the  year  1310  repeatedly  is¬ 
sued  indulgences  in  favor  of  the  hospices.'^ 

^Urkundenbuch  der  Stadt  Braunschweig,  hrsg.  von  L.  Haensel- 
mann,  I,  44f.,  Braunschweig,  1900. 

Tcs  registres  de  Boniface  VIII,  par  Digard,  Faucon  et 
Thomas,  n.  1780,  Paris,  i884flF. 

'Registres,  n.  1780. 

'Lettres  communes  de  Jean  XXII,  analysees  par  G.  Mollat, 
n.  17136,  Paris,  I90if. 

’Rcgcstum  dementis  V,  n.  5898,  5924. 


48  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


To  the  papal  grants  were  added  many  indul¬ 
gences  from  cardinals  and  bishops.  They  are 
collected  in  a  printed  communication  which  Bishop 
George  of  Bamberg  in  the  beginning  of  the  six¬ 
teenth  century  sent  out  to  his  clergy.®  Julius  II 
soon  after  confirmed  them  and  added  a  plenary 
indulgence  at  the  hour  of  death  for  the  faithful 
who  would  give  an  alms  sufficient  at  least  to  sup¬ 
port  one  person  for  one  day.® 

According  to  ecclesiastical  regulations  bishops 
might  grant  an  indulgence  for  only  forty  days. 
Clement  V  (1309),  however,  allowed  them  to 
grant  an  indulgence  of  one  hundred  days  to  the 
benefactors  of  an  orphan  asylum.^®  In  the  year 
13 1 1  the  same  pope  granted  an  indulgence  for  a 
hospital  in  the  diocese  of  Chartres  that  took  care 
of  many  blind  persons. An  institute  in  Paris 
exclusively  for  the  blind  likewise  received  an  in¬ 
dulgence  from  Clement  This  institute,  which 
Louis  IX  had  founded,  had  already  been  favored 
by  the  papacy  with  indulgences,  as  in  the  year 
1291  by  Nicholas  IV. In  1317  John  XXII  con¬ 
firmed  all  these  indulgences  and  thereto  added  an- 
other.^^  Some  years  later  (1326)  he  granted  an¬ 
other  indulgence  for  the  blind  institute  in  Or- 

®Printed  by  PI.  Sprenger,  Alteste  Buchdruckergeschichte  von 
Bamberg,  68f.,  Nürnberg,  1800. 

“Bekanntmachung  des  Priors  von  St.  Bernhard  von  Jahre  1507 
apud  J.  H.  Hottinger,  Historia  ecclesiastica  Novi  Testaraenti, 
VII,  8if.,  Tiguri,  1665. 

^"Regestum  dementis  V,  n.  4199. 

“Regestum,  n.  6137. 

^“Regestum,  n.  3237. 

“Les  registres  de  Nicolas  IV,  par  E.  Langlois,  n.  4752,  Paris, 
i886ff. 

^^Lettrcs  communes  de  Jean  XXII,  n.  3905. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


49 


leans.^®  Especially  numerous  are  the  papal  and 
episcopal  indulgences  for  the  leper  houses,  so 
widespread  in  the  Middle  Ages/® 

In  the  eleventh  century  the  Lazarist  order  was 
founded  for  the  care  of  lepers.  This  order  had 
its  own  special  indulgences  that  helped  not  a 
little  to  stimulate  the  faithful  to  generous  con¬ 
tributions.  The  same  is  true  of  the  Knights 
Hospitallers  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  of  the  Teu¬ 
tonic  Knights,  of  the  hospital  order  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  of  the  Antonius  order,  of  the  hospitals  of 
St.  Valentine  in  Rufach  (Alsace),  of  St.  Hubert 
in  the  Ardennes,  of  Cornelimiinster  near  Aachen, 
and  of  others  known  far  and  wide  through  their 
alms-gatherers. 

It  happened,  indeed,  that  the  alms-gatherers  of 
these  institutions  and  societies,  the  so-called 
quaestors,  through  their  offensive  conduct  often 
gave  occasions  for  just  complaints.’^  On  the  other 
hand,  it  must  be  granted  that  the  care  of  the  poor 
and  the  sick  was  mightily  assisted  through  the 
indulgences.  The  income*  from  indulgences  in 
large  measure  defrayed  the  upkeep  of  many  hos¬ 
pitals.  This  has  been  proved  by  recent  research, 
as,  for  example,  on  the  Holy  Ghost  Hospital  in 
Rome,’®  on  the  hospitals  of  the  German  orders 

^'Lettres  communes,  n.  26758. 

^'Les  registres  de  Nicolas  IV^,  n.  4755.  Th.  Gousset,  Les  actes 
de  la  Province  ecclesiastique  de  Reims,  II,  313,  Reims,  1843. 
Urkundenbuch  Strassburg,  I,  189.  Ulmisches  Urkundenbuch,  I, 
187,  252,  280,  Stuttgart,  1873. 

”In  this  connection  consult  the  author’s  essay:  Der  Haupt¬ 
schädling  des  Ablasses  un  Mittelatter,  in  Historischen  Jahrbuch, 
XXXV  (1914),  509-542. 

’*P.  Brune,  Histoire  de  l’ordre  hospitalier  du  S.  Esprit,  i3off., 
Paris,  1892. 


50  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOK 


in  Prussia,^®  or  on  the  great  hospital  Hotel  Dieu 
in  Paris. 

As  the  nursing  orders  and  the  different  chari¬ 
table  institutions  enjoyed  numerous  indulgences, 
so  special  indulgences  were  often  granted  for  in¬ 
dividual  works  of  mercy.  John  XXII  granted 
an  indulgence  of  this  kind  in  1329  for  the  support 
of  poor  women  in  confinement.^^  In  Parma  the 
custom  arose  for  pious  men  to  collect  alms  on 
specified  days  in  order  to  support  secretly  in  their 
homes  the  poor  who  were  obliged  to  beg.  Boni¬ 
face  VIII  in  1297  praised  this  custom,  and  granted 
to  the  contributors  an  indulgence  of  one  year  and 
forty  days.^^ 

The  provincial  synod  of  Ravenna  in  the  year 
13 1 1  also  thought  of  the  deserving  poor.  It  de¬ 
creed  that  the  bishop  should  look  to  it  that  in 
every  quarter  of  the  episcopal  city  some  pious 
men  should  be  appointed  to  take  up  a  collection 
and  according  to  their  best  judgment  to  distribute 
the  results  among  the  deserving  poor.  Everyone 
who  made  a  donation  for  this  purpose  received 
an  indulgence  of  forty  days.  All  those  who  busied 
themselves  to  bring  about  peace  received  the  same 
indulgence. A  previous  provincial  synod  of 
Ravenna  that  met  in  Forli  in  1286  had  tried  to 
stimulate  the  clergy  especially  to  charitable  ac¬ 
tivity.  To  every  bishop  of  the  province  was 

Rink,  Die  christliche  Liebestätigkeit  im  Ordensland  Preus- 
sen  bis  1525,  4iflF.,  Freiburg,  1911. 

®®E.  Coyecque,  L’Hötel-Dieu  de  Paris  au  moyen  äge,  I,  136!?., 
Paris,  1891. 

^^Lettres  communes  de  Jean  XXII,  n.  11351. 

“Registres  de  Boniface  VIII,  n.  1981. 

‘^Mansi,  Concilia,  XXV,  473,  Venetiis,  1782, 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


51 


granted  an  indulgence  of  one  hundred  days  if  for 
a  whole  week  he  fed  four  poor  persons  once  each 
day.  A  like  indulgence  could  be  gained  by  abbots 
who  in  the  same  way  fed  two  poor  men ;  by  arch¬ 
deacons,  arch-priests,  and  priors  who  fed  one  poor 
person ;  and  by  the  other  clergy  if  they  would  feed 
a  poor  man  merely  once.  Whoever  gave  a  poor 
man  a  new  coat  received  an  indulgence  of  one 
year.  If,  however,  the  coat  were  old  the  donor 
received  an  indulgence  of  only  forty  days.^^ 

For  the  support  of  the  poor  in  the  individual 
parishes  (pauperum  parochialium)  each  of  the 
bishops  at  a  provincial  synod  at  Cambrai  in  the 
first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century  granted  forty 
days’  indulgence,  in  all  four  hundred  and  eighty 
days.^®  In  1288  Bishop  Withego  of  Meissen 
granted  an  indulgence  to  the  pious  faithful  who 
visited  and  consoled  the  sick  in  the  hospital.^®  As 
the  plague  raged  in  Venice  in  the  year  1446  Nich¬ 
olas  V  empowered  the  Patriarch,  Laurence  Jus¬ 
tinian,  to  give  an  indulgence  to  all  the  priests,  doc¬ 
tors,  and  faithful  who  would  call  upon  and  care 
for  the  sick.^^  In  the  year  1515  Leo  X  granted 
an  indulgence  to  those  who,  according  to  their 
means,  would  lesson  the  need  of  the  numerous 
prisoners  at  that  time  languishing  in  the  jails  of 
Ferrara  almost  entirely  neglected.^® 

=^Mansi,  XXIV,  617; 

“Hartzheim,  Concilia  Germaniae,  IV,  83.  Gousset,  II,  465. 

^Urkundenbuch  des  Hochstifts  Meissen,  I,  221,  Leipzig,  1864 
(Codex  diplom.  Saxoniae  Regiae,  II,  i). 

Cornelius,  Ecclesiae  Venetiae  antiquis  monumentis  illus- 
tratae,  XIII,  27,  Venetiis,  1749. 

’'“Leonis  X  Regesta,  ed.  Hergenröther,  n.  16259,  Freiburg, 
i884ff. 


52  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


Innocent  VIII  in  1488  granted  a  plenary  in¬ 
dulgence  to  those  who  would  for  a  year  and  a  half 
take  into  their  own  home  or  otherwise  provide  for 
one  of  the  children  cared  for  in  the  Holy  Ghost 
Hospital  of  Rome.  The  same  reward  was  prom¬ 
ised  to  those  who  enabled  a  poor  girl  to  marry  by 
providing  a  dowry.^® 

For  the  dowering  of  poor  girls,  which  through¬ 
out  Christendom  was  looked  upon  as  a  good,  God¬ 
pleasing  work^*^  special  indulgences  were  also 
granted.  There  is  mention  of  papal  indulgences 
of  this  kind  in  a  form  book  dating  from  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  fourteenth  century.^^  Faustus  Sab- 
aeus,  one  of  the  representatives  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
Hospital  in  Rome,  who  in  1516  preached  the  in¬ 
dulgences  of  the  order  in  Silesia,  alluded  in  Bres¬ 
lau  to  the  fact  that  a  part  of  the  collections  would 
be  used  as  dowries  for  poor  girls. A  part  of 
the  contributions  from  the  jubilee  celebrated  in 
Poland  in  1451  likewise  served  this  purpose. 

The  benefactors  of  fallen  women,  who  wished 
to  begin  a  better  life,  were  in  1322  promised  an 
indulgence  of  forty  days  by  John  XXII.^^  Leo 

^Acta  Pontificum  danica,  IV,  439!.,  Kobenhavn,  1910.  Cf.  G. 
Schreiber,  Mutter  und  Kind  in  der  Kultur  der  Kirche,  42,  Frei¬ 
burg,  1918. 

®Tr.  Falk,  Die  Ehe  am  Ausgange  des  Mittelalters,  52!!.,  Frei¬ 
burg,  1908  (Erläuterungen  und  Ergänzungen  zu  Janssens  Ges¬ 
chichte  des  deutschen  Volkes,  4,  VI). 

®^Mentioned  by  E.  Göller  in  Götting.  Gelehrt.  Anzeigen,  645, 
1905. 

’^Falk,  53; 

^A.  Theiner,  Vetera  monumenta  Poloniae  historiam  illus- 
trantia,  II,  8of.,  Romae,  i860.  M.  Cromeri  de  origine  et  rebus 
gestis  Polonorum  libri,  XXX,  337,  Basileae,  1568. 

“Lettres  communes  de  Jean  XXII,  n.  15749. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


53 


X  in  1520  also  rewarded  with  indulgences  the 
care  of  reformed  fallen  women.®® 

In  Rome  there  was  a  whole  multitude  of  broth¬ 
erhoods  having  charitable  objects,  and  all  of  them 
were  richly  endowed  by  the  popes  with  indul¬ 
gences,  especially  the  following:  the  brotherhood 
della  Misericordia,  whose  object  was  to  look  after 
the  spiritual  needs  and  the  burial  of  those  con¬ 
demned  to  death;®®  the  brotherhood  della  Carita, 
founded  for  the  support  of  the  deserving  poor, 
for  the  visiting  of  prisoners,  and  for  the  burial 
of  paupers;®^  the  brotherhood  St.  Giacomo  degli 
Incurabili,  which  especially  devoted  itself  to 
incurables.®® 

Among  the  indulgences  for  the  support  of  the 
needy  may  be  reckoned  that  granted  in  the  year 
1256  by  Archbishop  Albrecht  of  Riga,  acting  as 
papal  legate,  to  those  who  for  God’s  sake  would 
help  the  shipwrecked. ®®  A  similar  indulgence 
was  granted  in  1266  by  the  Cardinal  Legate 
Guido. Moreover,  in  1509,  Julius  II  rewarded 
with  an  indulgence  of  ten  years  and  ten  quaran¬ 
tines  assistance  given  to  the  shipwrecked.^^ 

In  a  time  when  numerous  Christians  were  taken 
prisoners  by  the  Turks  and  the  Moors  and  sold 
as  slaves,  it  was  considered  one  of  the  greatest 

“Bullarium  romanum,  V,  742ff.,  Augustae  Taurinorum,  i860. 

“Bull,  rom.,  V,  343ff.  Pastor,  Geschichte  der  Päpste  III 
(1899),  36. 

“Bull,  rom.,  V,  739!!.  Pastor,  IV,  2,  588!!. 

“Bull,  rom.,  V,  639!!.  Pastor,  IV,  2,  588. 

“Fr.  G.  V.  Bunge,  Liv-,  Esth-  und  Kurländisches  Urkunden¬ 
buch,  I,  379,  Reval,  1853. 

*Tbid.,  495f. 

“Bull,  rom.,  V,  477. 


54  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 

works  of  mercy  to  help  these  unfortunates.  Two 
orders  had  been  founded  to  ransom  the  prisoners, 
that  of  the  Trinitarians  and  that  of  the  Merce- 
darians,  both  of  which  were  given  rich  indulgences 
by  the  Holy  Sec  in  order  that  they  might  the  more 
easily  obtain  the  necessary  funds. 

But  apart  from  these  orders,  popes  and  bishops 
have  granted  plentiful  indulgences  for  the  afore¬ 
mentioned  purpose.  On  the  complaint  of  the 
Bishop  of  Elno,  to  a  synod  held  at  Narbonne  in 
1135  under  the  presidency  of  a  papal  legate,  that 
many  of  his  subjects  had  been  imprisoned  by  the 
Saracens,  the  synod  granted  a  plenary  indulgence 
to  those  who  according  to  their  means  would  con¬ 
tribute  to  the  ransom  of  these  captives.  Public 
sinners,  however,  were  excluded  from  this  indul¬ 
gence.  These  had  to  apply  to  their  bishop.  Then, 
if  he  deemed  it  advisable,  they  could  share  in  the 
indulgence.^^ 

Bishop  Gaufred  of  Barbastro,  in  the  year 
11375  ^Iso  granted  an  indulgence  for  the  ransom 
of  prisoners.  According  to  the  amount  of 
the  alms,  the  contributors  were  to  receive  an  in¬ 
dulgence  of  forty,  twenty,  or  ten  days,  respec¬ 
tively.'^^ 

But  above  all  the  popes  by  the  granting  of  in¬ 
dulgences  sought  to  further  the  freeing  of  poor 
prisoners  and  the  support  of  those  Christians 
driven  out  of  their  own  country  by  the  infidels. 
We  may  cite  as  examples:  John  XXII, Clement 

"Villanueva,  Viage  literario,  VI,  341,  Valencia,  i8ai. 

^^Espana  Sagrada,  XLVI,  287,  Madrid,  1836. 

"Lettres  communes  de  Jean  XXII,  n.  4558,  13034. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


55 


VII, «  Boniface  IX,«  Martin  Nicholas  V,« 
Calixtus  III,«  Pius  II, Sixtus  IV,®^  Innocent 

VIII,  Alexander  VI,®®  Leo 

From  time  to  time  indulgences  were  granted 
for  schools  and  poor  students,  as  by  Innocent  IV 
and  several  bishops  in  favor  of  a  house  of  studies 
that  the  Cistercians  had  founded  in  1244  at  Paris. 
In  a  brief  that  the  Parisian  Bishop,  William  of 
Auvergne,  directed  to  his  clergy  about  the  end 
of  1248  there  is  a  total  of  eighteen  hundred  and 
thirty  days  given  for  this  purpose.®®  Some  years 
later  (1262),  Urban  IV  issued  an  indulgence  of 
one  hundred  days  for  the  support  of  poor  students 
who  had  found  a  home  in  the  newly  established 
Sorbonne  of  Paris.®® 

The  Cardinal  Legate,  Romanus,  in  1229 
granted  a  remarkable  privilege  to  the  new  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Toulouse.  On  its  opening,  the  Univer- 

*^Eubel,  Bullarium  Franciscanum,  VII,  213,  216,  Romae,  1904. 
Denifle,  La  desolation  des  eglises,  monasteres  et  hopitaux  en 
France  pendant  la  guerre  de  cent  ans,  II,  686,  Paris,  1899. 

**Ripoll,  Bullarium  ordinis  Praedicatorum,  II,  361,  366,  403, 
Romae,  1730. 

‘‘Raynaldus,  Annales  ecclesiastici  1429,  n.  21. 

*®Raynaldus,  1452,  n.  10.  Pastor  I  (1901),  829. 

"'Bull,  rom.,  V,  i3if. 

''“Raynaldus,  1462,  n.  40.  Theiner,  Vetera  monumenta  Slavo- 
rum  meridionalium  historiam  illustrantia,  I,  442,  Romae,  1863. 

'^Gottlob,  Aus  der  camera  Apostolica,  187.  Päpstliches 
Geheim-Archiv  Regest.,  608,  f.  275;  623,  f.  ii.  Quoted  by  Prof. 
Schlecht. 

“Gottlob,  187. 

“Ibid.,  187. 

“Regesta  Leonis  X,  n.  3471,  4559,  5056,  5261,  5409,  550x5,  5585, 
6505.  6798,  6936,  6937,  7847,  H193,  112(50,  12518,  12747,  12748, 
1401 5,  15575.  16520,  16724,  17520.  .... 

“Denifle,  Chartularium  Universitatis  Pansiensis,  I,  208, 
Parisiis,  1889. 

“Ibid.,  423!. 


56  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


sity  sent  a  letter  to  those  studying  elsewhere  to 
invite  them  to  Toulouse.  In  this  letter  special 
attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  the  Cardinal 
Legate  had  promised  a  plenary  indulgence  to  all 
the  members  of  the  university,  professors  as  well 
as  students.  Later  it  was  determined  how  long 
one  must  attend  the  school  in  order  to  obtain  the 
indulgence.^^ 

Since  at  that  time  the  pope  granted  plenary 
indulgences  only  for  the  purpose  of  a  crusade,  the 
legate  who  in  1228  [1208  ?]  had  been  entrusted 
with  the  organization  of  a  new  crusade  against 
the  Albigenses,  openly  expressed  the  view  that  to 
work  and  study  in  a  school  that  opposed  heresy 
was  to  take  part  in  the  crusade.  He  attributed 
to  the  schools  great  importance  as  a  means  for 
combating  error.  After  the  capture  of  Avignon 
in  1226,  he  obliged  the  city  to  support  a  professor 
and  twelve  students  for  the  conquest  of  heresy.®® 

When  towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century 
the  Friars  Minor  conceived  the  plan  of  extending 
and  furnishing  anew  their  great  house  of  studies 
at  Paris,  Innocent  VIII,  in  order  to  further  the 
useful  undertaking,  granted  a  plenary  indulgence 
which  could  be  preached  not  only  in  France,  but 
also  in  the  neighboring  countries.®^  The  contribu- 

®Tbid.,  i3of. 

H.  Laborde,  Avignon  au  Xlle  slecle,  3of.,  Paris,  1908. 

“'Different  posters  which  appeared  about  1488  refer  to  this 
indulgence.  Cf.  Einblattdrucke  des  15.  Jahrhunderts.  Ein 
bibliographisches  Verzeichnis  herausgegeben  von  den  Kom¬ 
mission  für  den  Gesamtkatalog  der  Wiegendrucke,  Nr.  59, 
376,  439,  Halle  a.  d.  S,,  1914.  P.  Fredericq,  Les  Comptes  des 
indulgences  en  1488  et  en  1517-19  dans  la  diocese  d’  Utrecht, 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


57 


tions  that  were  in  this  way  brought  together  found 
a  good  application.  When  in  1516  the  Bavarian 
Franciscan  provincial,  Kaspar  Schatzgeyer,  and 
his  companion,  Konrad  Pellikan,  visited  the 
Parisian  cloister  they  found  there  no  less  than 
three  hundred  and  fifty  students,  among  them  also 
some  German  brothers.®*^ 

In  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Julius 
II  likewise  granted  a  plenary  indulgence  in  favor 
of  another  Parisian  house  of  studies,  the  College 
Mantaigu.®^ 

James  Ridder,  auxiliary  bishop  of  Utrecht, 
granted  a  remarkable  indulgence  in  1507  to  the 
Brothers  of  the  Common  Life.  He  promised 
an  indulgence  to  the  young  people  who  would 
attend  the  school  of  the  Brothers  in  Utrecht, 
humbly  obey  their  teachers,  and  willingly  put  up 
with  correction  and  whipping.  The  faithful  who 
helped  the  Brothers  with  copying,  illuminating, 
and  binding  books,  or  who  bought  copied  books 
from  them,  were  likewise  granted  indulgences  by 
Bp.  Ridder.®^ 

Other  bishops  supported  the  art  of  printing 
by  granting  indulgences.  When  in  1481  Bishop 
Rudolf  of  Wurzburg  had  a  new  missal  printed 
he  granted  an  indulgence  of  forty  days  to  all  those 

i8ff.,  Bruzelles,  1899  (Separatdruck  aus  Memoires  publics  par 
I’Academie  royale  de  Belgique  (LIX)  Archief  voor  Kerkelijke 
Geschiedenis,  III,  454!!.,  Leiden,  1831. 

*“Das  Chroniken  des  Konrad  Peillikan,  hrsg.  durch  B.  Rig¬ 
genbach,  53,  Basel,  1877. 

*An  indulgence  brief  bearing  on  this  is  noted  in  L,  Rosen¬ 
thal’s  Katalog,  150,  Nr.  2907. 

“A.  Matthaeus,  Fundationes  et  fata  ecclesiarum  praesertim 
quae  Ultrajecti  fuerunt,  366!?.,  Leiden,  1704. 


58  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


who  by  advice  and  labor  helped  in  the  printing, 
to  those  who  bought  a  copy  of  the  new  missal, 
and  to  those  who  would  read  Mass  out  of  it.  The 
same  was  done  in  connection  with  the  printing 
of  the  Würzburger  breviary  in  1482.  Bishop 
Henry  of  Ratisbon  likewise  granted  an  indulgence 
in  favor  of  the  missal  published  in  1485.^^ 

*  *  *  * 

®*Fr.  Falk,  Die  Druckkunst  ira  Dienste  der  Kirche,  22,  Köln, 
1879  (Vereinschrift  der  Görres-Gesellschaft). 


3.  THE  TRUCE  OF  GOD 

^fMONG  the  beneficent  arrangements  furthered 
by  indulgences  belongs  the  so-called  truce  of 
God.  After  different  attempts  by  bishops  of  the 
South  of  France  to  check  the  disastrous  feuds  and 
fist-law  through  covenants  of  peace,  the  truce  of 
God  was  first  set  up  in  France  shortly  before  the 
middle  of  the  eleventh  century,  and  soon  spread 
to  the  neighboring  countries.  Even  in  the  begin¬ 
ning,  the  forgiveness  of  sins  was  held  up  before 
those  who  would  support  the  striving  after  peace. 
In  this  connection,  however,  no  indulgence  was 
granted;  there  was  merely  expressed  the  convic¬ 
tion  that  anyone  who  conscientiously  observed  the 
peace  could  obtain  the  forgiveness  of  his  sins,  as 
by  a  pious,  God-pleasing  work.'  Towards  the  end 
of  the  eleventh  century  indulgences  were  first 
granted  to  those  who  furthered  the  attempts  at 
peace. 

Among  the  earliest  indulgences  for  this  pur¬ 
pose,  the  one  granted  by  a  provincial  synod  of 
Rheims,  held  in  1092  at  Soissons,  deserves  a  high 
place.^  In  the  statutes  of  the  synod  there  is  men¬ 
tion  of  a  double  indulgence.  First  it  was  de- 

*Cf.  Zeitschrift  für  Kath.  Theologie,  XXXII  (1908),  640!. 

*The  statutes  of  this  synod  have  been  published  simultane¬ 
ously  by  M.  Sdralek  from  a  Wolfenbüttler  MS,  Wolfenbüttler 
Fragmente,  i4of.,  Münster,  1891  (Kirchengeschichtliche  Studien, 
I,  2)  and  by  Wasserschieben  in  Zeitschrift  der  Savigny-Stiftung 
für  Rechstgeschichte.  Germanistische  Abteilung,  XII,  iiaff., 
Weimar,  1891. 


59 


60  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


termined  that  the  bishops  could  lessen  the  penance 
— according  to  the  measure;  of  the  penitents’ 
accomplishments — of  those  who  took  part  in  a 
campaign  against  the  peace-breakers.  Then  to 
all  who  had  sworn  to  observe  the  peace  and  had 
kept  their  oath,  the  synod  remitted  the  penance 
due  for  a  serious  confessed  sin. 

In  the  year  1105  at  a  great  gathering  of  clergy 
and  laity  held  in  Constance  under  the  presidency 
of  a  papal  legate,  it  was  resolved  that  the  truce 
of  God  should  be  enforced  in  the  diocese.  To 
those  who  would  keep  it,  Bishop  Gebhard  III 
promised  a  remission  of  two  years,  in  case  they 
had  to  perform  a  seven  year  penance.^ 

The  indulgence  granted  by  the  Papal  Legate 
and  Archbishop,  Diego  of  Compostella,  in  the 
year  1124,  with  several  other  bishops  of  a  synod, 
reads  otherwise.  It  was  resolved  in  it  that  the 
peace-breakers  should  be  brought  to  obedience  by 
force  of  arms.  To  the  representatives  of  public 
order  who  might  fall  in  this  warfare,  the  bishops 
promised  the  same  plenary  indulgence  that  the 
crusaders  could  gain.  A  similar  indulgence  was 
promised  to  those  who  out  of  obedience  to  the 
articles  of  peace  laid  down  their  arms  and  were 
afterward  killed  by  their  enemies.^ 

In  a  document  whose  date  we  cannot  fix  very 
closely.  Bishop  Arnold  of  Narbonne  (1121- 
1149),  working  in  common  with  other  grandees 
of  South  France  for  the  truce  of  God,  likewise 

®Monumenta  Germaniae  historica.  Legum  Sectio  IV,  Tom.  I, 
615. 

*Espana  Sagrada,  XX,  418. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


61 


granted  an  indulgence  to  the  defenders  of  the 
peace  union.  In  what  form,  however,  this  indul¬ 
gence  was  issued  is  not  known,  as  the  wording  of 
the  resolution  has  not  been  preserved.  The  en¬ 
dorsements  of  Hadrian  IV  (1157-1159)  contain 
only  a  short  statement  relative  to  the  contents 
of  the  decree.®  This  peace  which  had,  perhaps, 
been  approved  as  early  as  the  twelfth  century  by 
Eugene  III  (1150-1153)®  was  later  confirmed 
anew  in  the  indulgence  issued  by  Alexander  III 
( 1 160-1 176)  and  Clement  III  (1191).® 

More  accurate  information  is  available  con¬ 
cerning  the  indulgence  which  the  Papal  Legate  and 
Archbishop,  Wilhelm  von  Auch,  promised  about 
the  year  1140  on  the  announcement  of  the  afore¬ 
said  peace  by  the  Second  Lateran  Council  (1139).® 
To  those  who  laid  down  their  lives  in  upholding 
the  truce  of  God  a  plenary  indulgence  was  granted/ 
the  other  defenders  of  peace  received  an  indul¬ 
gence  of  two  years.  Yet  it  was  left  to  the  bishops 
to  grant  a  greater  indulgence  to  those  who  spent 
a  longer  time  in  service. 

'Hadrian’s  writings  are  found  in  W.  Wiederhold,  Papsturk¬ 
unden  in  Frankreich.  Beiheft  zu  den  Göttinger  Nachrichten, 
ii4ff.,  1907. 

'Idem,  115. 

’P.  Kehr,  in  Göttinger  Nachrichten,  392,  1899. 

®H.  Prutz,  Malteser  Urkunden,  44,  München,  1883. 

*Bouquet-Brial,  Recueil  des  historiens  des  Gaules,  XIV,  392, 
Paris,  1806, 


4.  THE  CRUSADES 


S  THE  truce  of  God  must  be  looked  upon 
as  a  religious  movement,  so  also  the  Crusades 
have  to  be  considered  ecclesiastical  undertakings. 
How  much  western  civilization,  material  as  well 
as  spiritual,  owes  to  the  Crusades,  has  often  been 
sufficiently  described.  “The  impetus  in  trade  and 
commerce,  in  art  and  science,  that  raised  the  Mid¬ 
dle  Ages  to  the  highest  point  of  their  develop¬ 
ment  is  undeniably  an  actual  consequence  of  the 
intimate  contact  between  East  and  West  accom¬ 
plished  by  the  Crusades.”^ 

“While  important  as  are  the  Crusades  for  what 
they  positively  accomplished,  they  are  more  im¬ 
portant  still  for  what  they  prevented.  It  is  cus¬ 
tomary,  but  nevertheless  erroneous,  to  look  upon 
the  Crusades  as  wars  of  conquest,  as  an  attack  of 
Christendom  on  Islam  proceeding  entirely  from 
religious  fanaticism.  If  there  ever  was  a  war  of 
defense,  then  the  Crusades  must  be  considered 
such  in  their  place  in  world  history. 

The  crusading  movement  was  a  struggle  that 
Christianity  waged  for  its  very  existence. 

“Instead  of  complaining  of  the  roving  about 
and  restless  desire  for  achievement  of  our  medi¬ 
eval  forefathers,  we  ought  rather  to  thank  them 
that  at  the  very  time  of  the  greatest  power  of  the 

^A.  Knöpfler,  Lehrbuch  der  Kirchengeschichte,  5  Aufi.,  415, 
Freiburg,  1920. 


^2 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


63 


Moslem  peoples  they  turned  back  from  Europe 
the  stream  of  Asiatic  barbarism  and  thereby  at 
the  same  time  saved  and  advanced  western  civili¬ 
zation.”^ 

Nor  were  the  Crusades  that  the  popes  under¬ 
took  with  new  zeal  and  in  spite  of  all  failures 
about  the  fifteenth  century,  after  the  fall  of  Con¬ 
stantinople,  without  lasting  effects.  “When  at 
that  time  ....  the  Turkish  power 
mounted  so  dangerously  in  the  East,  and  then  to 
complete  the  astonishing  success  of  the  Janissaries, 
pressed  on  to  destroy  the  whole  of  western  civili¬ 
zation,  the  popes  were  the  only  ones  who,  even 
when  they  were  themselves  politically  powerless, 
earnestly  thought  of  withstanding  the  advance. 
They  supported  with  uncounted  sums  the  fighting 
Greeks,  Rhodesians,  and  Cyprians,  and  awaking 
the  recollection  of  the  warlike  times  of  the  Cru¬ 
sades,  called  for  war  against  Islam. 

As  in  earlier  times  the  promise  of  indulgences 
had  played  an  exceedingly  important  role,  so  now 
the  “uncounted  sums”  with  which  the  Holy  See 
supported  the  champions  of  Christianity  were  in 
large  part  raised  by  the  preachers  of  indulgences. 
Therefore,  if,  as  is  today  universally  acknow¬ 
ledged,  the  Crusades  had  a  surpassing  share  in 
the  development  of  western  civilization,  then  the 
indulgences,  by  which  the  Crusades  were  so 

*F.  W.  Kampfschulte,  Ueber  Charakter  und  Entwicklungs¬ 
gang  der  Kreuzzüge,  in  der  Oesterreichischen  Vierteljahreschrift 
für  katholische  Theologie,  II  (1863),  2iof. 

‘Gottlob,  Aus  der  Camera  Apostolica,  179.  Cf.  Pastor,  I, 
655ff. 


64  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


strongly  assisted,  ought  to  be  numbered  among 
the  factors  of  civilization.^ 

^Cf.  Lea,  Confession  and  Indulgences,  III,  582:  “The  crusades 
.  .  .  found  their  chief  source  of  support  in  indulgences,  without 
which  they  would  speedily  have  languished  and  have  been 
abandoned.” 


I  N  D  U 


SECTION  II 

LGENCES  FOR  SOCIALLY 
UL  TEMPORAL  OBJECTS 


USE" 


I.  BRIDGEBUILDING 


must  not  be  surprised  that  among  the 
works  for  whose  support  indulgences  were 
granted  there  are  found  some  which  today  would 
be  considered  purely  worldly.  In  the  Middle 
Ages  Church  and  State,  eternal  and  temporal, 
were  not  so  strictly  separated  as  in  a  later  time; 
on  the  contrary,  everything  temporal  was  then 
brought  into  relation  with  things  eternal.  Pro¬ 
ceeding  from  this  viewpoint,  Thomas  Aquinas 
teaches :  Indulgences  cannot  be  granted  for  what 
is  purely  worldly,  but  they  can  be  granted  for 
worldly  objects  insofar  as  these  are  related  to 
spiritual  matter.'  Moreover,  since  princes  and 
cities  were  only  too  often  in  financial  straits  be¬ 
cause  of  defective  administration  of  the  revenue 
and  frequently  called  upon  the  Church  to  help 
in  their  manifold  social  necessities,^  it  is  easily 
explained  how  so  many  indulgences  were  granted 
for  socially  useful  purposes. 

Of  the  socially  useful  temporal  works  which  in 
the  Middle  Ages  tended  to  be  brought  into  rela¬ 
tion  with  religion,  hridgehuilding  deserves  first 
place.  Some  ten  years  ago  the  distinguished 
scholar,  Fr.  Falk,  in  a  long  essay  entitled  “The 
Church  and  Bridgebuilding  in  the  Middle  Ages,” 
showed,  from  numerous  original  sources,  how 

^In  IV  Sent.  d.  20.  q.  unica,  a.  3,  quaestiuncula  3  (Sura.  Theol. 
Supplementum,  q.  25,  a.  3). 

'Gottlob,  I79ff. 


68  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


zealously  the  Church  on  her  part  furthered  the 
building  of  bridges.^  “As  once  in  Roman  times 
the  legionaries  of  Rome  marched  forth,  and  under 
the  protection  of  arms  spanned  the  then  known 
and  accessible  world  with  a  network  of  roads, — 
so  in  later  times  a  similar  activity  came  forth  from 
Rome.  For  the  Church’s  active  orders,  bishops, 
and  others  through  religious  motives  built  bridges, 
looked  after  their  safe  passage,  or  through  the  in¬ 
dulgences  granted  by  popes  and  bishops  in  the 
case  of  bridges — ‘bridge  indulgences’ — stirred 
up  the  necessary  zeal  in  the  hearts  of  the  faith¬ 
ful.”^ 

Along  the  same  lines  another  scholar  has 
pointed  out  how  “under  the  charitable  influences 
of  Christian  teaching”  pious  believers  exerted 
themselves  “to  erect  special  hostels,  to  keep  rafts, 
and  finally  to  build  bridges  in  the  very  frequented 
places  of  the  river  banks.”  “There  arose  bridges, 
especially,  to  which  religious  thought  and  pious 
opinion  gave  the  impulse.  The  building  of  a 
bridge  was  valued  next  to  the  building  of  a  church, 
as  a  most  meritorious  work;  papal  and  episcopal 
indulgences  were  granted  therefor.”® 

As  early  as  the  Middle  of  the  twelfth  century 
it  was  customary  to  grant  indulgences  for  the 
building  of  bridges,  as  is  shown  by  a  document  of 

*Histor-pol.  Blätter,  LXXXVII  (1881),  89-110,  184-201, 

245-59- 

Idem,  91. 

“J.  Becker,  Die  religiöse  Bedeutung  des  Brückenbaues  im  Mit¬ 
telalter  mit  besonderer  Beziehung  auf  die  Frankfurter  Main¬ 
brücke,  im  Archiv  für  Frankfurter  Geschichte.  Neue  Folge, 
IV,  IO,  Frankfurt,  1869. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


69 


Alexander  III  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.® 
The  latter  had  asked  in  Rome  whether  others 
than  the  subjects  of  the  bishop  granting  the  indul¬ 
gence  could  use  indulgences  granted  for  the  con¬ 
secration  of  a  church  or  the  building  of  a  bridge 
(quae  hunt  in  dedicationibus  ecclesiarum  aut  con- 
ferentibus  ad  aedificationem  pontium).  The 
granting  of  indulgences  at  that  time  was  especially 
concerned  with  the  dedication  of  churches.  The 
joining  of  bridge  indulgences  with  the  plentiful 
church  dedication  indulgences  therefore  shows 
clearly  enough  that  the  former  were  at  that  time 
already  in  vogue.  Alexander  III  in  his  reply  made 
it  clear  that  the  subjects  of  other  dioceses  could  use 
the  indulgences  only  with  the  consent  of  their  own 
superiors.  This  document  afterwards  found  a 
place  in  the  official  collection  of  the  papal  decre¬ 
tals/  and  consequently  helped  not  a  little  to  a 
wider  extension  of  the  bridgebuilding  indulgences. 

Moreover,  there  were  not  lacking  theologians 
to  justify  these  indulgences.  Among  the  oldest 
theologians  who  understandingly  discussed  indul¬ 
gences  is  William  of  Auvergne,  who  after  serving 
a  long  time  as  teacher  in  the  Paris  university,  was 
named  Bishop  of  Paris  in  1228  and  died  in  1249. 
William  treats  of  indulgences  in  his  work  on  the 
sacraments,  when  he  discusses  the  ordination  of 
priests.  He  considers  as  settled  the  right  of  bish¬ 
ops,  through  the  granting  of  indulgences,  to  les¬ 
sen  or  to  change  the  penance  imposed  by  the  con- 

‘Between  ii6i  and  1175.  Cf.  Jaffe-Loewenfeld,  Regesta 
Pontificum  Romanorum,  II,  n.  12411,  Lipsiae,  1888. 

’c.  4  X  de  poen.  ct  rem.  V,  38. 


70  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


fessor,  as  often  as  they  find  it  for  the  honor  of 
God,  the  salvation  of  souls,  or  the  good  of  the 
whole  Church.  In  this  connection  he  speaks  of 
the  indulgences  granted  for  monasteries,  hospitals, 
and  the  building  of  bridges  and  roads.  The  bene¬ 
factors  of  these  institutions  and  undertakings,  he 
proceeds,  perform  a  work  of  neighborly  love 
pleasing  to  God,  for  which  the  Church  rightly 
rewards  them.  Moreover,  they  have  a  claim  to 
the  prayers  and  good  works  of  the  religious  who 
live  in  the  convents,  the  poor  and  sick  who  are 
brought  to  the  hospitals,  the  pilgrims  and  pious 
travellers  who  journey  over  those  roads  and 
bridges.  In  consequence  of  this  spiritual  company 
they  are,  not  without  reason,  released  from  the 
imposed  penances,  since  others  by  means  of  pray¬ 
ers  and  good  works  intercede  for  them  with  God.® 

An  anonymous  theologian  of  the  diocese  of 
Metz  in  his  unprinted  treatise  on  the  sacraments, 
composed  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  cen¬ 
tury,  has  turned  to  good  account  the  investiga¬ 
tions  of  William,  and  he  has  copied  his  discussions 
on  indulgences,  in  part  verbatim.  Yet  now  and 
then  he  has  added  something  of  his  own  that  is 
not  without  interest. 

In  a  truly  popular  way  he  defends  the  road  and 
bridge  indulgences.®  The  bishops,  he  explains, 
are  perfectly  justified  in  granting  indulgences  for 
the  building  of  roads  and  bridges,  since  these 
rebound  to  the  good  of  pilgrims  and  pious  trav- 

*GuIielmi  Alverni  episcopi  Parisiensis  Opera  omnia,  I,  552, 
Aureliae,  1674. 

“Summa  sacramentorum.  Handschriftlich  auf  der  Münchener 
Staatsbibliothek,  Cod.  lat.  22243,  44- 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


71 


ellers.  It  is  a  great  charity,  he  proceeds,  to  level 
the  way,  and  to  remove  the  stones  and  mud  from 
the  roads.  If  the  roads  are  bad  and  dangerous, 
the  travellers  would  be  retarded  or  they  would 
hurt  themselves  and  suffer  all  sorts  of  mishaps: 
the  wagons  would  turn  over,  the  wine  be  spilt, 
the  horses  fall  down,  the  men  get  angry  and  curse 
all  those  who  should  have  kept  the  roads  in  good 
condition  but  failed  to  do  so.  Moreover,  they 
would  slander  God  and  His  holy  saints  most 
shamefully.  Sometimes  they  might  even  lose  their 
lives,  as  did  the  driver  who  in  the  midst  of  his 
cursing  and  blaspheming  fell  under  the  wagon  and 
had  his  neck  broken  by  the  wheels.  Now  whoever 
through  his  alms  prevents  all  these  evils  not 
only  honors  God,  and  earns  blessings  and  prayers 
of  the  travellers,  but  likewise  serves  eternity. 
From  this  we  see  that  had  Julius  Caesar,  who  lived 
ten  years  in  Gaul  and  built  many  level  and  safe 
roads,  been  a  believer,  he  could  by  such  a  good 
work  have  gained  a  priceless  glory  in  heaven. 

From  this  religious  valuation  of  socially  useful 
works,  it  is  readily  seen  why  the  great  preacher, 
Berthold  of  Ratisbon,  enumerates  road  building 
and  path  making  in  the  series  of  works  of  Chris¬ 
tian  love,  and  ranks  them  actually  as  service  of 
God.  He  says :  “Since  God  has  created  all  things 
for  the  use  and  service  of  man  and  since  God 
Himself  serves  man  .  .  .  so  is  it  reasonable 

that  man  should  serve  Him  with  his  whole  heart. 

Who  is  rich  ought  to  give  alms  and 
found  Masses,  make  roads  and  paths,  endow 
convents  and  hospitals,  feed  the  hungry,  give  drink 


72  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


to  the  thirsty,  clothe  the  naked,  harbor  the 
stranger,  and  altogether  perform  the  six  works 
of  mercy.”^*^ 

Just  because  labor  directed  to  the  building  of 
roads  and  bridges,  insofar  as  it  was  done  for  the 
honor  of  God  and  out  of  love  for  one’s  neighbor, 
availed  as  God’s  service,  it  was  from  time  to  time 
permitted  by  bishops  on  Sunday  and  holy  days. 
The  above  mentioned  theologian,  however,  makes 
mention  of  an  abuse  connected  with  this  Sunday 
activity.  Many,  says  he,  deprive  themselves  of 
the  merit  of  their  labor,  since  they  miss  Mass  on 
Sunday  and  holy  days,  and  early  in  the  morning 
to  the  sound  of  drums  and  foolish  music  they 
draw  wagons,  carry  stones,  and  afterwards  loaf 
in  the  tavern.  They  ought  first  to  hear  Mass  and 
then  do  their  work  in  simplicity  and  humility. 

Let  us  now  see  how  in  the  individual  countries 
indulgences  were  granted  for  bridgebuilding. 
Italy  will  lead,  because  here  the  oldest  of  such 
indulgences  are  found.  It  may  well  be  that  similar 
indulgences  were  granted  elsewhere  at  an  earlier 
date;  but  so  far  no  details  are  known  about  them. 

In  Italy  the  popes  sought  especially  to  promote 
a  bridge  across  the  Arno  at  Fucecchio  (Ficiclo, 
Ficecclo)  between  Florence  and  Pisa.  This  bridge 
and  the  adjacent  hospital  belonged  to  the  Hos¬ 
pitallers  of  St.  James  of  Altopascio,  a  religious 
community  founded  about  the  middle  of  the 
eleventh  century  for  the  care  of  pilgrims  and 

^®Berthold  von  Regensburg,  Deutsche  Predigten,  hrsg.  von 
Fr.  Pfeiffer,  I,  190,  Wien,  1862. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


73 


trav’^ellers.'^  Altopascio  {Altus  pass  us),  formerly 
of  the  diocese  of  Lucca,  now  of  the  diocese  of 
Pescia,  was  with  its  great  hospital  (domus  hos- 
pitalis  S.  Jacobi  de  Altopassu)  the  mother  house 
of  the  order,  which  first  spread  over  Italy,  and 
later  over  other  countries. 

In  1459  I^ius  II  wished  to  suppress  the  order, 
which  was  no  longer  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of 
the  times.  He  had  intended  to  combine  it  with 
the  recently  planned  order  of  Bethlehemites,  that 
was  to  oppose  the  advance  of  the  Turks.  But 
the  order  of  Bethlehemites  did  not  come  into  exist¬ 
ence,^^  and  so  the  community  of  Altopascio  re¬ 
mained  until  nearly  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  cen¬ 
tury.  It  was  finally  suppressed  by  Sixtus  V  in 
1587.^®  That  one  of  its  chief  tasks  was  the  build¬ 
ing  of  bridges,  as  is  so  often  asserted,  is  not  cor- 
rect.^"^  It  is  only  true  that  they  cared  for  one  or 
another  bridge,  especially  for  the  bridge  by  Fu- 
cecchio,  where  the  principal  road  from  Lucca  to 
Florence,  Siena,  and  Rome  passes. 

This  bridge,  which  according  to  all  appearances 

”Cf.  Joh.  Lamius,  Deliciae  eruditorium  XVI,  1233-2493, 
Florentiae  1754.  T.  Lorenzi,  L’ospizio  e  il  paese  di  Altopascio, 
Prato,  1904.  J.  Kehr,  Regesta  Romanorum  Pontificum.  Italia 
Pontificia,  III,  47off.,  Berokini,  1908. 

^*Cf.  H.  Prutz,  Rüstungen  zum  Türkenkrieg,  in  den  Siztungs- 
berichten  der  bayerishen  Akademie  der  Wissenschaften.  Phil¬ 
osophische  und  histor.  Klasse,  4  Abhandlung,  S.  6ff.,  1912. 

‘*Kehr,  471.  Already  m  1572  the  Benedictines  had  the  order’s 
house  in  Paris  (St.  Jacques  du  Haut-Pas).  Helyot,  Histoire 
des  ordres  religieux,  II,  278,  Paris,  1714.  Therefore  the  state¬ 
ment  found  so  frequently  in  recent  works  that  the  order  of 
Altopascio  was  suppressed  in  1459  is  incorrect. 

^*In  the  rule,  printed  by  Lamius,  i432ff.,  there  is  not  one  syl¬ 
lable  about  bridgebuilding. 


74  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


was  originally  built  of  wood/®  was  often  seriously 
weakened  by  the  wild  floods,  and  sometimes  even 
almost  entirely  destroyed.  Hence  its  upkeep 
meant  no  small  expense.  This  explains  why  the 
popes  through  the  promise  of  indulgences  so  often 
encouraged  the  support  of  this  commercially  im¬ 
portant  bridge.  The  first  pope  mentioned  as  hav¬ 
ing  granted  an  indulgence  of  forty  days  for  the 
support  of  the  bridge  at  Fucecchio  is  Alexander 
III  (1159-81).  His  example  was  followed  by 
Lucius  III,  Urban  III,  Clement  III,  Innocent  III, 
Honorius  III,  Gregory  IX,  Innocent  IV,  Alex¬ 
ander  IV,  Urban  IV.  All  the  indulgence  briefs 
seem  to  have  been  lost.  Clement  IV,  however, 
mentions  them  in  his  letter  of  April  20,  1265, 
wherein  he  admonishes  the  faithful  to  help  the 
brothers  of  Altopascio  in  rebuilding  the  bridge 
that  had  so  often  been  destroyed  (qui  saepe  sub- 
vertitur).  Like  his  predecessors,  he  granted  an 
indulgence  of  forty  days  for  a  charitable  contri¬ 
bution.  However,  the  privilege  was  to  last  for 
only  three  years.^®  As  the  other  popes  had  placed 
a  similar  condition  on  the  indulgence  its  frequent 
renewal  is  easily  explained. 

Clement  IV,  following  his  immediate  prede¬ 
cessor,  Alexander  IV,  granted  for  Fucecchio  a 
second  indulgence,  but  of  a  somewhat  different 

an  indulgence  brief  of  Altopascio  of  the  year  1431  men¬ 
tion  is  made  of  a  stone  bridge  (preciosi  pontis  lapidei).  Zeits¬ 
chrift  für  Geschichte  des  Ober-rheins,  XVI,  216  (1864). 

^®F.  Schneider,  Regestum  Volatteranum,  254,  Roma,  1907. 
Schneider  thinks  that  the  indulgence  briefs  of  Alexander  III 
have  been  preserved ;  but  the  writings  to  which  he  refers  con¬ 
tain  no  grant  of  indulgences ;  they  merely  confirm  the  posses¬ 
sions  and  privileges  of  the  order. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


75 


purport.  This  is  referred  to  in  1297  in  an  indul¬ 
gence  brief  of  Boniface  VIII.  At  the  Arno  bridge 
in  Fucecchio,  near  the  pilgrims’  house,  there  was 
a  church  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  which  every  year 
on  the  feast  of  the  Assumption  was  visited  by 
numbers  of  faithful.  Many  of  the  pilgrims  at  this 
time  gave  their  mite  also  for  the  upkeep  of  the 
expensive  bridge.  In  order  to  encourage  their 
generosity  still  further  Boniface  VII,  like  his  pred¬ 
ecessors,  Alexander  IV  and  Clement  IV,  granted 
an  indulgence  of  one  year  and  forty  days  to  all 
those  who  on  the  feast  of  the  Assumption  or  dur¬ 
ing  its  octave  should  visit  Fucecchio  and  make  a 
contribution  for  the  bridge:  “Whoever  shelters 
and  refreshes  a  poor  man,  shelters  and  refreshes 
Christ  the  Lord;  and  whoever  through  building 
a  bridge  makes  easy  and  safe  a  dilhcult  and  dan¬ 
gerous  river-crossing,  truly  loves  his  neighbor 
and  preserves  him  from  the  danger  of  death. 
Surely  an  interesting  reason  for  the  bridge  indul¬ 
gences. 

The  same  reason  appears  again  in  a  document 
wherein  Clement  V,  under  date  of  March  i,  1314, 
renewed  the  indulgence  of  one  year  and  forty  days 
to  be  gained  on  the  feast  of  the  Assumption.^®  A 
longer  document  with  the  same  date  renews  the 
indulgence  of  forty  days  for  charitable  contribu¬ 
tions.  The  testimonial  to  the  brothers  stated  that 
they  had  at  their  own  expense  out  of  pure  neigh¬ 
borly  love  (caritatis  igni  succensi)  restored  the 
bridge,  destroyed  by  a  flood,  at  a  passage  over 

”Les  registres  de  Boniface  VIII,  n.  1780. 

“Regestura  Clemcutis  V,  n.  103 ii. 


76  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


the  Arno  where  many  were  exposed  to  the  danger 
of  drowning  (ubi  multi  periclitari  solebant). 

A  third  document  of  March  1314,  relates 
that  the  very  necessary  bridge  had  been  destroyed 
anew  in  a  recent  battle.  For  this  reason  the  faith¬ 
ful  were  urged  once  more  to  lend  a  helping  hand 
to  the  brothers.^®  Some  years  later  John  XXII 
also  encouraged  the  rebuilding  of  the  bridge 
through  the  promise  of  an  indulgence  of  forty 
days.^® 

For  a  bridge  in  Terracina  Honorius  III,  in 
1223,  granted  an  indulgence  of  ten  days.^^ 

In  the  neighborhood  of  the  port  of  Pisa  a  hos¬ 
pital  was  founded  for  poor  people  in  1155.^^ 
Some  ten  years  later  the  brothers  of  this  institu¬ 
tion  began  the  construction  of  a  bridge.  But 
since  they  could  not  complete  the  work  with  their 
own  means,  they  turned  to  Lucius  III  with  the  re¬ 
quest  that  he  grant  an  indulgence  in  favor  of 
their  undertaking.  The  pope  granted  their  peti¬ 
tion,  and  under  date  of  April  28,  1185,  issued  an 
indulgence  of  thirty  days  to  the  benefactors  of 
the  new  bridge.^^  In  the  accompanying  document 
the  socially  useful  character  of  the  new  bridge  is 
emphasized  (in  quo  universorum  transeuntium 
per  locum  ipsum  saluti  consulitur).  Three  years 
later  (January  ii,  1188)  Clement  III  renewed 

^®Idera,  10300,  103 12. 

*®Lettres  communes  de  Jean  XXII,  n.  10410. 

^Titra,  Analecta  novissima  spicilegii  Solesmensis,  I,  242, 
Parisiis,  1885.  Pressutti  (Regesta  Honorii  III)  seems  to  have 
overlooked  this  document,  as  it  is  not  mentioned  by  him. 

“Kehr,  III,  375. 

”J.  V.  Pflugk-Harttung,  Acta  Pontificum  inedita,  III,  320, 
Stuttgart,  1888. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


77 


the  indulgence, as  did  Celestine  III  in  1191  and 
Innocent  III  in  1203.^® 

In  the  diocese  of  Genoa  a  community  of  broth¬ 
ers  had  the  hospital  and  bridge  of  Lavagna  under 
their  care  (fratris  pontis  et  hospitalis  de  Lav- 
ania).  Innocent  IV  in  1253-54  granted  to  their 
benefactors  an  indulgence  of  a  seventh  part  of 
their  penance.^® 

Two  documents  of  Urban  III  (1186-87), 
which  he  requests  the  faithful  to  contribute 
towards  a  bridge  in  Bologna^^  have  also  been 
looked  upon  as  grants  of  indulgences.^®  But 
neither  bull  contains  any  such  grant.  They  are 
merely  recommendations,  such  as  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  today  issue  from  time  to  time  concern¬ 
ing  collections  for  good  objects. 

Numerous  bridge-indulgences  are  found  in  the 
South  of  France.  Here  arose,  as  many  recent 
authors  assert  again  and  again,  a  special  commu¬ 
nity,  later  on  very  widespread,  which  from  its  chief 
occupation,  the  building  of  bridges,  was  called 
“fratres  pontifices,”  that  is,  bridgebuilding 
brothers. 

“This  community,”  writes  Ratzinger,  “arose  in 
the  twelfth  century,  and  the  members  pledged 
themselves  with  a  vow  to  protect  merchants  and 
travellers  from  being  plundered,  to  take  them 
across  the  rivers  free  of  charge,  to  build  hospices 

356. 

*Kehr,  III,  376. 

**G.  Erler,  Der  Liber  Cancellariae  Apostolicae  v.  J.  1380, 
126,  Leipzig,  1888. 

*’Jaffe-Loewenfeld,  Reg.  Rom.  Pont.,  n.  15773,  15874. 

*‘So  F.  Falk  im  Kirchenlexikon,  II,  1330. 


78  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


for  the  sick  and  poor  travellers  on  the  river 
banks  and  in  remote  regions,  and  to  construct 
bridges  and  roads.  The  founder  of  this  commu¬ 
nity  is  a  poor  shepherd  boy,  the  little  Benedict, 
called  Benezet,  who  excited  a  universal  sensation 
and  won  undying  fame  through  the  bridge  that  he 
built  across  the  Rhone  at  Avignon.  The  com¬ 
munity  was  approved  by  Pope  Clement  III  in 
1189.  It  spread  very  rapidly  over  the  whole  of 
France,  Italy,  Spain,  Scotland,  and  other  countries, 
obtained  great  possessions  and  privileges,  and  for 
a  long  time  worked  most  prosperously.^® 

Other  authors  relate  that  the  order  of  the 
“Bridge  Brothers”  was  suppressed  by  Pius  II  be¬ 
cause  of  inner  decay.®®  But  what  is  related  of 
this  alleged  widespread  order  was  long  ago  shown 
by  a  French  investigator  to  be  untenable.  This 
scholar,  L.  Bruguier-Roure,  in  1875  published  a 
very  worth  while  essay  on  this  question,®^  wherein 
the  false  accounts  of  the  order  are  set  right.  Also, 
what  is  said  about  the  spread  of  the  “Bridge 
Brothers”  throughout  Italy,  Spain,  Scotland,  and 
other  countries,  is  not  at  all  true.  The  “Bridge 
Brothers”  working  in  southern  France  have  been 
confused  with  the  brothers  of  St.  James  of  Alto- 
pascio.  Likewise,  when  it  is  said  that  the  order 
of  Bridge  Brothers  was  suppressed  by  Pius  II 
in  1459,  the  order  is  confounded  with  the  com- 

”G,  Ratzinger,  Geschichte  der  kirchlichen  Armenpflege,  346, 
Freiburg,  1884. 

“"Kirchenlexikon,  II,  1331-  Kirchliches  Handlexikon,  I,  754. 
Herders  Konversationslexikon,  II,  395,  usw. 

“Bulletin  monumental  XLI,  225!!.,  Paris,  1875;  Les  construc- 
teurs  de  ponts  au  moyen  äge. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


79 


munity  of  Altopascio.  It  has  been  clearly  estab¬ 
lished  above  that  the  contemplated  suppression  of 
the  Hospitallers  of  Altopascio  by  Pius  II  was  not 
carried  out. 

As  for  the  “Bridge  Brothers”  of  southern 
France,  they  formed  in  no  way  a  genuine  order. 
They  were  rather  independent  societies  that  the 
same  need  called  into  being  in  different  places  at 
the  same  time.^^  In  the  beginning  they  were  not 
a  religious  order  with  vows;  they  were  merely 
brotherhoods,  corporations  with  a  religious  basis, 
such  as  were  founded  for  so  many  purposes  in 
the  Middle  Ages.  Only  In  course  of  time  did 
these  brotherhoods  develop  into  religious  orders. 
It  should  be  remarked  also  that  the  members  of 
these  societies  never  called  themselves  “fratres 
pontifices,”  bridge  building  brothers;  nor  did  their 
contemporaries  so  designate  them.  They  were 
called  merely  Brothers  of  the  Bridge  at  Avignon, 
of  the  Bridge  at  Lyons,  and  so  forth.  The  name 
“fratres  pontifices”  is  first  found  among  later 
authors. 

The  oldest  French  “Bridge  Brothers”  are  those 
of  Bonpas,  who,  so  the  story  goes,  had  as  early  as 
1084  built  a  bridge  over  the  Durance  in  the  place 
of  that  name  (Department  of  Vaucluse).®®  In 
the  course  of  the  twelfth  century  they  built  still 
other  bridges.  At  first  the  association  bore  a 
worldly  character;  later  the  members  took  vows 

“Bruguier-Roure,  232:  “Des  confreries  qu’un  meme  besoin  fit 
surgir  simultanement  en  plusieurs  endroits.”  So  also  L.  Lal- 
lemend,  Histoire  de  la  Charite,  III,  125,  Paris,  1906. 

“Brouguier-Roure,  2420. 


80  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


and  formed  a  religious  community  under  a  prior. 
After  the  example  of  Lucius  III  (1181-1185), 
whose  document  is  lost,  Clement  III  in  1189  took 
it  under  the  apostolic  protection  and  confirmed  its 
possessions,  especially  the  mother-house  at  Bonpas 
and  the  bridge  belonging  to  it.^^  The  bull  is  di¬ 
rected  to  the  Prior  Raymond  and  the  brothers 
(Raimundo  priori  domus  pontis  Bonipassus 
ejusque  fratribus).  The  brothers  received  a 
further  bull  of  confirmation  in  1197  from  Celes- 
tine  III.®“ 

There  is  no  mention  of  any  indulgences  in  the 
papal  documents;  and  we  are  not  otherwise  in¬ 
formed  of  indulgences  received  by  the  Brothers 
of  Bonpas  for  their  bridgebuilding.  It  is  true  that 
John  XXII  in  the  year  1316  granted  an  indulgence 
of  one  hundred  days  for  contributions  to  a  stone 
bridge  over  the  Durance  at  Noves,  the  place 
where  Petrarch’s  beloved  Laura  was  born.®® 
However,  the  building  of  this  bridge  was  not 
undertaken  by  a  religious  order  but  by  the  munici¬ 
pality  (quern  homines  castri  Novarum  aedificare 
coeperunt).  The  same  is  true  of  the  bridge  which 
was  built  with  indulgence  contributions  over  the 
Verdon — a  tributary  of  the  Durance — at  Castel- 
lane  in  1404.®^ 

With  the  Brothers  of  Bonpas,  who  joined  them¬ 
selves  in  1284  to  the  Hospitallers  of  St.  John  of 

*^W.  Wiederhold,  Papsturkunden  in  Frankreich.  Beiheft  zu 
den  Göttinger  Nachrichten,  i6i,  1907. 

‘'Idem,  171. 

*®Lettres  secretes  et  curiales  de  Jean  XXII  relatives  ä  la 
France,  par  A.  Coulon,  n.  104. 

Gauthey,  Traite  de  la  construction  des  ponts,  I,  64, 
Liege,  1843. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


81 


Jerusalem,  there  must  not  be  confused,  as  often 
happens,  the  Brothers  of  the  Bridge  at  Avignon 
(fratres  pontis  Avinionensis) ,  who  formed  a  gen¬ 
uine  community.  As  founder  of  this  community 
— indeed  as  founder  of  the  Bridge  Brothers  gener¬ 
ally — St.  Benezet  (Provengal  form  of  Benedict) 
is  often  named.  When  the  life  of  this  Saint  is  dis¬ 
entangled  from  legends,  this  much  is  certain — 
that  in  1177  he  began  the  building  of  a  stone 
bridge  over  the  Rhone  at  Avignon,  and  that  this 
vast  undertaking  was  nearly  completed  at  the 
time  of  his  death  (1184.)®®  In  the  year  1188 
the  famous  bridge,  of  which  some  arches  remain 
even  till  today,  was  finished.  As  elsewhere,  the 
builders  of  the  bridge  in  Avignon  formed  a  so¬ 
ciety,  at  whose  head  stood  Benezet.  A  document 
of  the  year  1180  speaks  of  “Brother  Benedict” 
as  “Superintendent”  of  the  bridge  work;  his  co¬ 
laborers  are  called  “brothers.”®^  They  formed 
therefore  a  brotherhood.  At  that  time  they  still 
belonged  to  the  laity.  But  as  early  as  the  year 
1187  John  Benedict,  the  first  successor  of  the 
Saint,  appeared  as  “prior.”^®  To  that  extent  the 
lay  union  had  in  the  meantime  changed  into  a  re¬ 
ligious  association. 

No  indulgences  seem  to  have  been  given  to  those 
who  contributed  to  the  building  of  the  bridge; 
but  numerous  grants  were  offered  later.  Since  im- 

**A.  B.  de  Saint-Venant,  Saint  Benezet,  Bourges,  1889.  An 
industrious  work,  with  valuable  source  materials,  but  un¬ 
critical.  Compare  with  it  the  remarks  of  the  Bollandist,  A. 
Poncelet,  in  L’Universite  catholique,  Nouvelle  Serie,  Tome  IV 
(1900)  296-302. 

“Saint-Venant,  ii. 

*®Idcm,  16. 


82  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


provements  were  often  necessary,  since  the  bridge 
was  again  partly  destroyed  by  war,  since,  finally, 
the  hospital  connected  with  the  bridge  afforded 
shelter  for  numerous  sick  and  travellers,  the 
brothers  had  continually  to  call  upon  public  char¬ 
ity.  In  order  to  further  their  collections,  many 
popes  and  bishops  granted  indulgences  to  the» 
benefactors  of  the  work. 

A  catalogue  of  these  indulgences  that  comes 
from  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century  has 
already  been  published  several  times.^^  At  the 
head  of  the  indulgence-granting  popes  stands  In¬ 
nocent  IV  with  an  indulgence  of  one  year  and  forty 
days.^^  Alexander  IV,  Urban  IV,  Clement  IV, 
Nicholas  IV,^^  and  Boniface  VIII  granted  the 
same  indulgence,  whereas  Clement  V  is  repre¬ 
sented  in  the  old  list  with  an  indulgence  of  only 
forty  days.  Added  to  this  are  twelye  cardinals, 
each  of  whom  granted  an  indulgence  of  forty 
days.  It  is  related  of  the  Bishop  of  Aix  that,  in 
union  with  the  bishops  of  his  province,  he  granted 
an  indulgence  of  two  hundred  days.  The  same 
privilege  was  extended  by  the  Archbishops  of 
Arles,  Embrun  and  Narbonne  with  their  suffra¬ 
gans.  All  these  indulgences  were  confirmed  by 
John  XXII  (1316-1334).  Just  what  this  con¬ 
firmation  meant,^^  and  whether  all  the  indulgences 

^^For  example,  in  Th.  Raynaldus,  Opera,  VIII,  170,  Lugduni, 
1665;  Saint-Venant,  84!!. 

**This  indulgence  was  granted  in  1251.  Saint-Venant,  54. 

**On  July  28,  1290.  Les  registres  de  Nicolas  IV,  n.  2990. 

**It  is  highly  improbable,  since  John  XXII  in  1323  explained 
to  the  King  of  France  that  the  Holy  See  did  not  pledge  itself 
to  confirm  episcopal  indulgences.  Lettres  secretes  de  Jean  XXII, 
n.  1865. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


83 


specified  in  the  catalogue,  with  other  privileges, 
were  actually  granted  must  remain  uncertain.  At 
all  events  the  catalogue  contains  sundry  privileges 
that  have  scarcely  any  claim  to  be  genuine. 

Another  catalogue  of  the  papal  indulgence 
briefs  for  the  bridge  and  hospital  work  at  Avig¬ 
non,  made  by  the  board  of  directors  in  1430,  has 
Very  recently  been  published  for  the  first  time.'*® 
It  is  noteworthy  that  in  this  catalogue  there  is  no 
reference  to  the  above-mentioned  indulgences. 
Even  at  that  time  the  documents  in  the  case  were 
no  longer  available.  The  following  popes  were 
quoted:  Martin  IV  with  an  indulgence  of  one 
year  and  forty  days  (March  28,  1281);  Nich¬ 
olas  IV,  likewise  with  one  year  and  forty  days 
(March  18,  1290).  On  December  21,  1343, 
Clement  VI  granted  an  indulgence  of  three  years 
and  three  quarantines,  besides  a  plenary  indul¬ 
gence  at  the  hour  of  death.  The  bull,  however, 
may  have  been  falsified.  An  indulgence  of  one 
year  and  forty  days  was  granted  by  Innocent  VI 
(1353).  Then  comes  a  document  of  Urban  V 
(1366),  wherein  the  benefactors  of  the  work  are 
promised  an  indulgence  of  three  years  and  three 
quarantines  together  with  a  remission  of  the  sev¬ 
enth  part  of  their  penance  for  every  alms  that 
they  give  on  Friday.  Finally  various  other  priv¬ 
ileges  were  extended  to  them,  which  appear  fre¬ 
quently  in  the  episcopal  documents  of  that  time, 
but  not  in  the  papal  ones. 

"Ripert-Monclar,  Bullaire  des  indulgences  concedees  avant 
1431  ä  I’oeuvre  du  Pont  d’Avignon  par  les  Souverains  Pontifes, 
Paris,  1912. 


84  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


One  could  with  equanimity  place  the  bull  among 
the  forgeries;  just  as  has  been  done  with  a  docu¬ 
ment  of  1371  wherein  Gregory  XI  empowers  the 
benefactors  to  apply  to  the  dying  all  the  indul¬ 
gences  granted  for  the  work  in  Avignon.  In  1430 
all  these  documents  were  laid  before  Martin  V 
for  confirmation  by  the  rector  of  the  hospital. 
The  confirmation  bull  was  ready  drawn  when  the 
pope  died.  His  successor,  Eugene  IV,  under  date 
of  March  ii,  1431,  confirmed  all  the  indulgences 
granted  by  the  popes  for  the  support  of  the 
bridge  and  hospital.  New  confirmations  followed 
under  Calixtus  III  (August  23,  1455)  and  Pius 
II  (January  20,  1458)."^®  In  addition  Pius  II 
on  March  24,  1460,  promised  a  plenary  indul¬ 
gence  for  several  years.^^  A  similar  grant  came 
from  Sixtus  IV.^® 

St.  Benedict,  the  builder  of  the  famous  bridge 
in  Avignon,  also  commenced  the  great  bridge  de  la 
Guillotiere  in  Lyons,  and  in  large  measure  com¬ 
pleted  it.  So  it  has  often  been  asserted  very  re¬ 
cently,  and  indeed  on  the  ground  of  a  bull  which 
Innocent  IV,  in  1245,  issued  at  Lyons  during  the 
general  council  that  was  held  there.®®  But  the 
bull  referred  to  is  merely  the  brothers’  advertise- 

**P.  Pansier,  Note  sur  une  bulle  de  Calixte  III  accordant  des 
indulgences  ä  L’oeuvre  du  Pont  d’  Avignon,  in  Annales  d’ 
Avignon  et  du  Comtat  Venaissin,  I  (1912),  169-176. 

‘Tansier,  171.  E.  Göller,  Der  Ausbruch  der  Reformation 
und  die  spätmittelalterliche  Ablasspraxis,  121,  Freiburg,  1917. 

^®Pansier,  i7iff. 

**Especially  by  Saint-Venant,  igS, 

’’"First  published  in  Analecta  juris  Pontificii,  Xlle  S^rie, 
iiSSff.,  Rome,  1873,  then  again  and  better  by  Saint-Venant 
(8iff.)  with  a  facsimile  of  the  ancient  document. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


86 


ment  of  the  bridge  work  at  Lyons.®^  First  it  is 
related  therein  how  the  shepherd  Benedict, 
scarcely  twelve  years  old,  received  a  commission 
from  God  to  build  a  bridge  over  the  Rhone  at 
Avignon.  Then  we  are  told  that  he  went  to  Rome 
to  speak  to  the  pope.  On  his  return  he  heard  that 
in  Lyons  many  people  were  exposed  to  great  dan¬ 
ger  in  crossing  the  Rhone;  therefore  he  went  to 
that  city  in  order  to  build  a  bridge  similar  to  the 
one  in  Avignon,  and  in  addition  a  hospital.  When 
he  died  the  work  was  In  great  part  completed.®^ 

For  this  bridge  (prefato  ponti),  however,  many 
indulgences  were  Issued.®^  The  indulgences  ob¬ 
tained  are  then  enumerated:  The  Pope  (Dom¬ 
inus  Papa,  Innocent  IV  is  meant)  had  granted  an 
indulgence  of  one  year  and  forty  days;  his  pred¬ 
ecessor,  Gregory  IX,  forty  days;  the  Archbishop 
of  Lyons,  forty  days,  besides  various  privileges; 
in  addition,  the  Archbishops  of  Rheims,  Bourges, 
Tours,  Bordeaux,  Rouen,  Sens,  Vienne  and  Arles 
with  many  of  their  suffragans  granted  Indulgences, 
that  altogether  amounted  to  two  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  sixty-nine  days. 

The  document,  which  has  no  signature,  bears 

“'Sanctissirais  in  Christo  patribus  Archlepiscopis,  Episeopis 
....  “fratres  pontem  super  Rodanum  Dei  revelatione  inceptum 
peragentes,  salutem.”  The  Brothers  of  Lyons  are  meant,  not,  as 
Saint-Venant  erroneously  thinks,  the  Brothers  of  Avignon.  The 
bridge  in  Avignon  had  been  finished  long  before  1245. 

®*“Pontem  simili  modo  cum  quodam  hospital!.  .  .  .  Incepit,  et 
antequam  moreretur,  ex  magna  parte  complevit.” 

“The  reference  is  evidently  to  the  indulgences  for  the  bridge 
at  Lyons,  not  that  at  Avignon,  as  Saint-Venant  thinks  (p.  29, 
84).  Certainly  the  words,  “prefato  ponti,”  show  that  there  is 
question  of  the  bridge  mentioned  immediately  before,  that  is, 
the  bridge  in  Lyons;  and  even  the  indulgence  list  itself  shows 
that  only  the  bridge  at  Lyons  can  be  considered. 


86  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


the  following  date:  “Datum  in  concilio  generali 
celebrato  apud  Lugdunum  pontificatus  domini 
Innocentii  pape  quarti  anno  secundo.”  Attached 
to  the  document  hangs  the  seal  of  the  Pope,  In¬ 
nocent  IV.  Both  date  and  seal  are  evidently  for¬ 
geries.  The  brothers  of  Lyons  wished  to  invest 
their  proclamation  with  greater  respect.  This, 
perhaps,  first  appeared  after  the  death  of  Inno¬ 
cent  IV,  and  was  destined  to  encourage  contribu¬ 
tions.  Or  had  Innocent  IV  actually  allowed  the 
Brothers  to  attach  the  papal  seal? 

What  is  further  related  in  this  document  of  the 
beginnings  of  the  bridge  at  Lyons  does  not  cor¬ 
respond  with  the  historical  facts  as  they  are 
known  from  other  reliable  sources.  To  all  ap¬ 
pearances  St.  Benedict  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  building  of  this  bridge.  Towards  the  end  of 
the  twelfth  century  there  was  in  Lyons  only  a  very 
poor  bridge  of  wood,  which,  it  appears,  had  been 
built  in  the  eighties  by  a  certain  Brother  Stephan. 
In  a  bull  of  the  year  1184  or  1185 — somewhat 
suspected,  it  is  true — Pope  Lucius  III  reports 
that  the  Brother  Stephan  had  undertaken  the 
building  of  a  bridge  over  the  Rhone;  and  in  this 
bull  the  pope  urges  bishops  and  pastors  to  recom¬ 
mend  this  socially  useful  work  to  the  charity  of 
the  faithful  under  promise  of  an  indulgence.®^ 

When  in  the  year  1190  Philip  Augustus  of 
France  and  Richard  the  Lion  Heart  of  England 

®'M.  O.  Guigue,  Bibliotheque  historique  du  Lyonnais,  I,  129, 
Lyon,  1886.  U.  Chevalier,  Regeste  Dauphinois,  n.  4918,  Val¬ 
ence,  191211.  Jaffe-Loewenfeld,  Regesta,  n.  15243.  Loewenfeld 
notes  the  bull  as  a  forgery,  but  without  giving  any  reason. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


87 


undertook  the  Third  Crusade,  great  armies 
marched  through  Lyons  and  caused  the  collapse  of 
the  all  too  weak  bridge/®  Collections  were  in¬ 
stituted  to  rebuild  it.  The  agents  of  the  bridge 
work  w^ent  over  to  England.  Richard  the  Lion 
Heart  with  his  own  hand  recommended  them  to 
the  charity  of  his  subjects.®® 

The  building  of  a  stone  bridge  was  first  under¬ 
taken,  apparently,  under  Innocent  IV.  This  Pope 
lent  the  work  such  strong  support  that  an  old 
carved  inscription  on  the  bridge  calls  him  the 
builder  of  the  bridge.®^  Not  only  did  he  grant  an 
indulgence  of  one  year  and  forty  days,®®  but  he 
also,  in  the  year  1247,  took  the  Brothers  of  the 
Bridge  under  the  apostolic  protection,®®  and  in 
1254  requested  the  bishops  to  authorize  the  agents 
of  the  work  to  take  up  collections  and  to  announce 
to  the  faithful  the  attached  indulgences.®®  In  the 
beginning  only  one  pier  and  the  first  arch  were 
built  of  stone. ®^  A  century  was  to  pass  before  the 
difficult  undertaking  should  be  brought  to  a  happy 

“C.  F.  Menestrier,  Histoire  civile  de  la  ville  de  Lyon,  283, 
Lyon,  1696. 

®®Menestrier,  Preuves,  S.  XXXI.  The  king  recommended 
“fratres  et  nuntios  de  Ponte  qui  est  Lugduni  constitutus.”  As 
in  so  many  other  places,  so  accordingly  in  Lyons,  the  bridge¬ 
building  was  carried  out  by  a  religious  society.  In  the  year 
1334  the  city  council  first  took  over  the  temporal  administration 
of  the  work.  Menestrier,  XXXIIIf. 

^Menestrier,  283.  J.  B.  Monfalcon,  Lugdunensis  historiae 
Monumenta.  Supplement,  p.  XXV,  Lugduni,  i860. 

““Mentioned  in  the  inscription  and  in  the  above  referred  to 
proclamation  of  the  bridge  brothers. 

“Les  registres  d’Innocent  IV,  n.  2607. 

'"Chevalier,  Regeste  Dauphinois,  n.  9059.  Monfalcon  (406) 
and  Potthast  (Regesta,  n.  3799)  erroneously  attribute  it  to 
Innocent  III. 

'’Monfalcon,  398. 


88  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


conclusion.  Like  Innocent  IV,  later  popes,  as 
Urban  IV,  Clement  VII,  Alexander  V,  Eugene 
IV,  Leo  X,  sought  to  advance  the  work.®^  Like¬ 
wise,  under  Alexander  V,  in  the  year  1410,  a  papal 
legate  granted  an  indulgence  for  the  building  of 
the  bridge  in  Lyons.®® 

Besides  the  bridge  de  la  Guillotiere  at  Lyons, 
the  “Bridge  Brothers”  are  said  to  have  built  an¬ 
other  wider  bridge  over  the  Rhone,  the  so-called 
Holy  Ghost  bridge.®^  But  the  latter  bridge  is  a 
great  distance  from  Lyons;  moreover,  it  was  not 
built  by  the  “Bridge  Brothers.”  Pont-Saint- 
Esprit,  a  town  in  the  Department  Gard,  today  be¬ 
longing  to  the  diocese  of  Nimes,  was  formerly 
called  Saint-Saturnin  du  Port.  The  inhabitants  of 
this  town  began  the  construction  of  a  bridge  across 
the  Rhone  in  1265.®®  The  laborers  formed  a 
corporation  or  brotherhood,  as  happened  at  the 
building  of  the  bridge  at  Avignon.  After  the 
work  had  been  finished,  in  1307,  and  the  skilled 
laborers  had  departed,  the  Holy  Ghost  Brother¬ 
hood  continued  to  exist  as  a  religious  congrega¬ 
tion.  Its  members  cared  for  the  upkeep  of  the 
bridge  and  devoted  themselves  to  the  sick  and  to 
poor  travellers  in  the  associated  hospital. 

As  the  popes  had  granted  indulgences  for  the 
construction  of  the  great  bridge,  that  has  endured 

^Monfalcon,  399.  Chevalier,  n.  10053  (Urban  IV). 

**Menestrier,  284. 

*^So  Leger  in  Ersch  und  Grubers  Allgemeine  Enzyklopädie, 
XIII  (1824),  149;  J.  Becker  in  Archiv  für  Frankfurter  Ge¬ 
schichte,  18,  1869;  and  the  anonymous  author  of  an  article  on 
the  “Bridge  Brothers”  in  the  Vienna  newspaper,  “Die  Presse,” 
Nr.  351,  Dez.  20,  1893. 

*®Bruguier-Roure  in  Bulletin  monumental,  XLI,  436ff. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


89 


till  our  own  time,®®  so  they  later  favored  the  up¬ 
keep  of  the  bridge  with  indulgence  privileges. 
Thus  in  1319  John  XXII  granted  an  indulgence 
of  forty  days  for  this  work.®^ 

As  Avignon,  Lyons,  and  Pont-Saint-Esprit,  so 
also  Vienne  possessed  a  great  bridge  across  the 
Rhone,®®  that  in  the  first  decade  of  the  fourteenth 
century  had  to  be  rebuilt.  In  1321  John  XXII 
granted,  for  the  space  of  two  years,  an  indulgence 
of  sixty  days  in  favor  of  the  rebuilding.®®  In  the 
introduction  of  the  indulgence  bull  the  pope  ex¬ 
plained  that  among  the  God-pleasing  and  meri¬ 
torious  works  of  piety  he  ranked  bridgebuilding 
as  not  the  least,  since  commerce  was  thereby  facil¬ 
itated  and  the  safety  of  travellers  cared  for.  He 
therefore  looked  upon  it  as  a  duty  of  the  apos¬ 
tolic  office  to  reward  the  promoters  of  so  useful 
a  work. 

The  most  important  tributary  of  the  Rhone,  on 
the  left  bank,  next  to  the  Durance,  is  the  Isere. 
When  in  the  year  1219  a  frightful  flood,  called 
the  “Deluge  of  Grenoble,”  destroyed  the  Isere 
bridge  in  the  latter  city,  the  Bishop,  John,  issued 
an  appeal  to  the  faithful  to  encourage  them  to 
charitable  contributions  for  a  new  bridge.  Rely¬ 
ing  on  the  mercy  of  God  and  the  merits  of  the 

*®Recent  information  on  these  indulgences  will  be  found  in 
Bruguier-Roure,  Chronique  et  cartulaire  de  I’oeuvre  des  eglise, 
maison,  pont  et  hopitaux  du  Saint-Esprit.  Nimes,  1889-95.  Un¬ 
fortunately  I  did  not  have  access  to  this  work  that  is  no  longer 
in  the  French  book  stores. 

*^Lettres  communes  de  Jean  XXII,  n.  9725. 

**Consult  on  this  Bruguier-Roure,  Bulletin  monumental,  XLI, 
436ff. 

**Gallia  Christiana,  XVI,  Instrumenta  65,  Parisiis,  1865. 


90  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


saintly  Bishop  Hugo  (died  1132),  the  first  builder 
of  the  bridge  (qui  primitius  pontem  nostrum  insti- 
tuit),  he  remitted  to  all  who  helped  the  Bridge 
Brotherhood  (confratriae  nostri  pontis)  the 
fourth  part  of  the  penance  imposed  for  properly 
confessed  sins;  in  addition  he  gave  an  indulgence 
for  all  venial  and  forgotten  sins.^® 

Another  tributary  of  the  Rhone  on  the  left 
bank  is  the  Lez,  over  which  at  Bollene,  north¬ 
west  of  Orange,  was  a  bridge  much  used  by  pil¬ 
grims.  In  1426  the  administrator  of  the  diocese 
of  Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux,  to  which  Bollene 
(Abolene)  belonged,  granted  an  indulgence  of 
forty  days  for  contributions  to  the  restoration  of 
this  bridge.  The  same  indulgence  was  granted 
in  1449  and  1459  for  money  contributions  as  well 
as  for  personal  service  by  the  Cardinal  Legate, 
Pierre  de  Foix.'^^ 

On  the  right  side  of  the  Rhone  the  Dominicans 
had  built  a  bridge  over  the  Gardon  at  Alais. 
Clement  V  in  1308  issued  in  its  favor  an  indul¬ 
gence  of  one  hundred  days.^^ 

In  France  the  valley  of  the  Rhone  certainly 
shows  that  most  of  the  bridges  were  built  with 
the  help  of  money  given  for  indulgences;  but 
there  are  also  in  other  French  provinces  many 
bridges  whose  construction  was  zealously  ad¬ 
vanced  by  popes  and  bishops.  Thus  in  the  year 

’“Idem,  92ff.  Chevalier,  Regeste  Dauphinois,  n.  6508. 

’Albanes-Chevalier,  Gallia  Christiana  novissima,  IV,  243, 
269,  281,  Valence,  1909. 

’■‘H.  Grange,  Sommaire  des  lettres  pontificales  concernant  le 
Gard,  emanant  des  Papes  d’Avignon  du  XlVe  siecle,  I,  18, 
Nimes,  1911. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


91 


1222  the  Bishop  of  Rodez  besought  his  subjects 
to  assist  in  building  at  Cajarc  a  bridge,  then  under 
construction  over  the  Lot,  a  tributary  of  the 
Garonne.  A  similar  appeal  was  issued  in  1269 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges  for  another  bridge 
which  crossed  the  Lot  at  Entraygues.  In  the 
short  communications  that  prefaced  both  episco¬ 
pal  documents, there  is,  indeed,  no  mention  of 
any  indulgence;  yet  one  may  very  well  conclude 
that  according  to  the  custom  of  the  time  indul¬ 
gences  were  promised  in  both  cases.  When  in  the 
year  1339  a  bridge  was  to  be  built  at  Rodez  over 
the  Aveyron,  another  tributary  of  the  Garonne, 
the  bishop  of  that  city  promised  an  indulgence 
to  all  those  who  would  personally  share  in  the 
work.”^^ 

In  the  year  1305  Clement  V  issued  an  indul¬ 
gence  of  one  year  and  forty  days  for  a  bridge  at 
Larunde  in  the  diocese  of  Bordeaux.”^®  Since  in 
that  region  there  is  no  river,  it  must  have  referred 
to  a  little  bridge  over  a  brook  or  canal. 

For  a  bridge  over  the  Lez  at  Montpellier  Clem¬ 
ent  V  in  1267  gave  an  indulgence  of  forty  days.'^® 

If  we  turn  to  the  north,  along  the  Loire,  we 
find  a  bridge  in  Nevers  for  whose  rebuilding  Clem¬ 
ent  V  in  1306  issued  an  indulgence  of  one  hundred 
days.^^  In  the  year  1375  Gregory  XI  granted 

”A.  de  Gaujal,  fitudes  historiques  sur  le  Rouergues,  II,  97, 
122,  Paris,  1858. 

’Tdem,  177. 

“Regestum  dementis  V,  n.  1448. 

‘*Martene,  Thesaurus  novus  anecdotorum,  II,  461,  Parisiis, 
1717. 

Regestum  dementis  V,  n.  910,  6016. 


92  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


an  indulgence  for  a  bridge  which  crossed  the 
Creuse,  a  tributary  of  the  Loire,  at  St.  Gaultier 
(Department  Indre).^® 

From  Spain  we  can  cite  only  one  bridge  indul¬ 
gence.  It  consisted  of  twenty  days  and  was 
granted  by  Honorius  III  in  1222  for  a  bridge 
across  the  Tayo  at  Talavera.'^^  As  it  was  said  in 
the  papal  document,  the  Christians  through  this 
bridge  would  have  the  power  of  more  quickly 
bringing  help  to  their  brethren  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Tayo  if  they  were  attacked  by  the 
Moors. 

The  sources  for  Germany  are  richer.  The  old¬ 
est  bridge  indulgences  are  found  in  the  province 
of  Donau.  In  the  year  1220  Kaiser  Friedrich  II 
issued  the  command  to  replace  the  wooden  bridge 
in  Donauwörth  with  a  stone  one.  In  order  to  get 
the  means  for  this  purpose,  collections  had  to  be 
instituted.  The  Kaiser  took  the  alms-gatherers 
under  his  protection  and  commended  them  to  the 
good  will  of  his  subjects. The  Church,  also, 
sought  to  further  the  useful  public  work.  In  the 
year  1229  Bishop  Heinrich  of  Eichstätt  granted 
an  indulgence  of  thirty  days  for  either  labor  or  a 
monetary  contribution.®^ 

Some  years  later,  February  23,  1236,  Bishop 
Rudiger  of  Passau  granted  an  indulgence  of  fif- 

”Denifle,  La  desolation  des  eglises,  raonasteres  et  hopitaux 
cn  france  pendant  la  guerre  de  cent  ans,  II,  430,  Paris,  1899. 

’“P.  Pressutti,  Regesta  Honorii  III,  n.  6182,  Romae,  1888-95. 

‘“MIonumenta  boica,  XVI,  34,  Monachii,  1795. 

*^C.  Königsdorfer,  Geschichte  des  Klosters  zum  Heiligen 
Kreuz  in  donauwörth,  I,  77,  Donauwörth,  1819.  M.  Lefflad, 
Regesten  der  Bischöfe  von  Eichstätt,  II,  2,  Eichstätt,  1874. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


93 


teen  days  for  contributions  to  a  bridge  over  the 
Traun  in  Wels.®^ 

On  the  right  side  of  the  Rhine  more  bridges 
can  be  named  for  which  indulgences  were  granted, 
and  first  of  all  the  Neckar  bridge  in  Esslingen. 
In  order  to  help  in  the  upkeep  of  this  bridge,  sev¬ 
eral  foreign  bishops  in  1286,  who  were  in  Rome  at 
the  time,  issued  a  joint  document  encouraging  the 
faithful  to  charitable  contributions  for  this  “very 
pious  work”  under  promise  of  an  indulgence  of 
forty  days.®^ 

It  is  “noteworthy”  that  foreign  bishops  should 
grant  an  indulgence  for  a  German  undertaking. 
Yet  there  is  nothing  extraordinary  in  this.  In 
almost  every  German  record  book  there  are  doc¬ 
uments  in  which  several  foreign  bishops,  with  the 
consent  of  the  local  bishops,  grant  an  indulgence 
of  forty  days  for  some  good  work.  These  joint 
indulgence  briefs  were  prized  especially  highly 
because  it  was  therein  explained  that  each  one  of 
the  undersigned  bishops  granted  an  indulgence 
of  forty  days.  The  greater  the  number  of  signers, 
the  more  valuable  was  the  indulgence  brief.  Such 
indulgences,  therefore,  were  sought  especially  in 

“Urkundenbuch  des  Landes  ob  der  Enns,  III,  syf.,  Wien, 
1862.  As  early  as  the  year  1128  the  Bishops  of  Salzburg, 
Würzburg,  Freissing,  Bamberg,  Ratisbon,  and  Passau,  had 
granted  an  indulgence  of  forty  days  for  the  Weis  bridge.  How¬ 
ever,  there  is  question  here  of  a  later  forgery.  Certainly  fic¬ 
titious,  also,  is  the  indulgence  of  fifty  days  for  mortal  sins  and 
fifty  days  for  venial  sins  granted  for  the  same  purpose  by  Pope 
Alexander  in  1138.  Cf.  J.  Lahusen,  Zum  Welser  Brücken¬ 
privileg,  in  Mitteilungen  für  österrreichishee  Geschichtsfors¬ 
chung,  XXXI  (1910),  361-74. 

**A.  Diehl,  Urkundenbuch  der  Stadt  Esslingen,  I,  77!.,  Stutt¬ 
gart,  1899  (Württemb.  Geschichtsquellen,  IV). 


94  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


those  places  where  many  bishops  congregated. 
Most  of  these  documents  are  dated  from  Rome 
or  Avignon,  because  a  number  of  bishops  were 
usually  to  be  found  at  the  papal  court. 

One  of  these  joint  indulgence  briefs  was  issued 
at  Rome  in  1300  by  fifteen  bishops®^  for  the  Main 
bridge  at  Frankfurt. 

But  from  Avignon  is  dated  the  indulgence  brief 
that  in  1360  fifteen  bishops  signed  for  the  Lahn 
bridge  in  Dietz.  When  Archbishop  Cuno  of 
Trier  in  1365  confirmed  this  indulgence,  which 
consisted  of  forty  days  and  was  available  for  con¬ 
tributions  in  money  and  building  material  as  well 
as  for  personal  service,  he  himself  added  another 
indulgence  of  forty  days.  The  author  to  whom 
we  owe  this  information  remarks  that  the  Lahn 
bridge  threatened  to  collapse.  “Foreign  help  was 
necessary  because  of  the  lack  of  local  means  for 
such  an  expensive  bridgebuilding.”  For  this 
reason  Count  Gerhard  of  Dietz  sought  to  obtain 
an  indulgence.®® 

On  the  left  side  of  the  Rhine,  in  Maastrict,  the 
great  wooden  Maas  bridge  broke  down  in  1275 
as  a  procession  was  passing  over  it.  More  than 
four  hundred  people  lost  their  lives.  Six  years 
later  the  rebuilding  in  stone  was  commenced.  For 
the  completion  of  the  bridge  four  archbishops  and 
fifteen  bishops  in  1284  atOrvieto,  where  the  Curia 

®*J.  Fr.  Boehmer-Fr.  Lau,  Urkundenbuch  der  Reichsstadt 
Frankfurt,  I,  388f.,  Frankfurt,  1901. 

®®J.  Arnoldi,  Miscellaneen  aus  der  Diplomatik  und  Geschichte, 
37ff.,  Marburg,  1798. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


95 


was  then  held,  each  granted  an  indulgence  of  forty 
days.®® 

Since  the  year  1216  there  had  existed  a  canon 
limiting  the  indulgence  that  bishops  might  grant, 
apart  from  the  consecration  of  a  church,  to  forty 
days.  As  head  of  the  Church,  however,  the  pope 
had  authority  to  overstep  these  limits.  Thus 
Martin  V  in  1246  issued  an  indulgence  of  two 
years  and  two  quarantines  for  the  building  of  a 
stone  bridge  over  the  Nahe  at  Sobernheim.®^  As 
was  remarked  in  the  papal  document,  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  of  Sobernheim  had  petitioned  the  Holy 
Father  to  encourage  the  building  of  the  bridge — 
the  cost  of  which  they  could  not  defray  alone — 
since  often  in  the  past,  in  their  province,  persons 
had  lost  their  lives  in  crossing  the  Nahe.  The 
pope  readily  granted  this  request.  His  pastoral 
office,  he  explained,  placed  on  him  the  duty  of 
helping  the  faithful  in  their  needs  and  anxieties. 
Since  he  looked  upon  assistance  to  the  building  of 
bridges  as  a  pious,  God-pleasing,  and  meritorious 
work  by  which  manifold  dangers  and  injuries 
would  be  prevented  and  the  general  good  fur¬ 
thered,  he  often  urged  the  faithful  to  undertake 
such  works,  and  sought  to  encourage  their  gener¬ 
osity  by  the  promise  of  spiritual  graces,  especially 
of  indulgences. 

With  the  same  words  begins  the  indulgence 
brief  of  Clement  VI,  dated  August  i,  1343,  in 
favor  of  the  Mosel  bridge  in  Coblenz,  which  Arch- 

**Messagcr  des  sciences  historiques,  383ff.,  Gand,  1848. 

"J.  C.  Fuchs,  Oratio  de  dioecesi  Beckelnhemensi,  22!.,  Biponti, 
1732. 


96  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


bishop  Baldwin  of  Trier  then  had  in  view.®®  This 
bridge,  “a  creation  that  now  has  endured  five  hun¬ 
dred  years  and  served  the  neighborhood  as  an 
ornament,  and  especially  for  unending  usefulness,” 
was  at  all  events  the  most  beautiful  monument 
that  the  Archbishop  made  for  himself.®®  The 
pope  granted  to  the  benefactors  of  the  work  an 
indulgence  of  one  year  and  forty  days,  which  held 
good  until  the  bridge  should  be  completed. 

Two  months  later  a  number  of  archbishops  and 
bishops  who  tarried  in  Avignon  issued  an  indul¬ 
gence  of  forty  days  for  the  same  bridge.  In  the 
accompanying  document  the  faithful  are  urged 
to  contribute  to  such  a  praiseworthy  and  useful 
public  work  (ad  tarn  laudabile  opus  fundandum 
pro  totius  communitatis  ac  Christi  fidelium  tran- 
seuntium  commodo  ac  pro  re  publica)  out  of  Chris¬ 
tian  charity  (caritatis  intuitu).®® 

Archbishop  Baldwin  published  both  these  indul¬ 
gences  in  1344  and  took  this  opportunity  to  renew 
the  indulgence  which  he  himself  had  granted  in 
1343  ill  favor  of  the  new  bridge.®^  Further  in¬ 
dulgences  for  the  Mosel  bridge  were  granted  by 
Pope  Urban  V  (1363),®®  the  Archbishop  Boe- 
mond  II  in  1356,  and  Archbishop  Werner  in  1390 

®*‘W.  Günther,  Codex  diplomaticus  Rheno-Mosellanus,  III, 
458,  Coblenz,  1825.  H.  V.  Sauerland,  Urkunden  und  Regesten 
zur  Geschichte  der  Rheinlande  aus  dem  Vatikanischen  Archiv, 
82,  Bonn,  1905. 

®  A.  Dominikus,  Baldewin  von  Lützelburg,  Erzbischof  und 
Kurfürst  von  Trier,  515!.,  Coblenz,  1862. 

®®Hontheim,  Historia  Trevirensis  diplomatica  et  pragmatica, 
11.^155»  Lag.  Vind.,  1750. 

®‘A.  Goerz,  Regesten  der  Erzbischöfe  von  Trier,  84f.,  Trier, 
1861. 

**Sauerland,  V,  39. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


97 


Änd  1409.®^  From  the  last  named  document®* 
it  is  evident  that  at  that  time  the  bridge  was  not 
fet  completed.  Later  the  archbishops  of  Trier 
granted  additional  indulgences  for  the  bridge  in 
Coblenz,  for  example  Archbishop  Otto  in  1422 
and  1424,  and  Archbishop  James  I  in  1440.®® 

Leo  X  on  J anuary  13,  1515,  granted  for  twenty 
Vears  the  rich  indulgences  of  the  Johanniter  order 
to  a  brotherhood  of  Trier  whose  duty  it  was  to 
improve  the  neglected  roads  and  bridges  of  the 
irchdiocese  for  the  use  of  pilgrims  and  merchants; 
and  allowed  the  indulgences,  with  the  permission 
of  the  suffragan  bishops,  to  be  announced  in  the 
ecclesiastical  provinces  of  Trier  and  Mainz.®® 

Boniface  IX  in  1391  granted  an  indulgence  of 
three  years  and  three  quarantines  in  favor  of  a 
bridge  crossing  the  Weser  at  Hameln.®^ 

Bishop  Withego  of  Meissen,  as  early  as  1275, 
granted  indulgences  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  great 
Elbe  bridge  in  Dresden.®®  In  the  year  1319  thir¬ 
teen  bishops  in  Avignon  granted  an  indulgence  of 
forty  days.  Referring  to  the  admonition  of  the 
Apostle  that  the  faithful  should  support  one  an- 

**Goerz,  92,  121,  133. 

'^Printed  by  Günther,  IV,  i3oflF. 

“Goerz,  150,  153,  174.  According  to  an  undated  poster,  the 
total  sum  of  the  indulgences  amounted  to  9743  days.  Günther, 

Regesta  Leonis  X,  n.  13671.  Schulte,  Die  Fugger,  I,  86. 
St.  Beissel,  Geschichte  der  Trierer  Kirchen,  II,  145,  Trier, 
1889. 

®^Urkundenbuch  des  Stiftes  und  der  Stadt  Hameln,  I,  488f., 
Hanover,  1887  (Quellen  und  Darstellungen  zur  Geschichte 
Niedersachsens,  II). 

*“ürkundcnbuch  der  Städte  Dresden  und  Pirna,  2,  Leipzig, 
1875  (Codex  diplomaticus  Saxoniae  Regiae,  II,  5). 


98  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


Other,  the  bishops  explain  in  their  document  that 
they  gladly  recommend  and  further  socially  use¬ 
ful  works  by  which  all  sorts  of  misfortunes  are 
averted.  Bishop  John  of  Meissen  confirmed  the 
indulgence  granted  by  foreign  bishops  and  on  his 
part  added  an  indulgence  of  forty  days  and  a 
quarantine  (that  is,  a  further  indulgence  of  forty 
days).^® 

It  has  often  been  asserted  that  Elector  Freder¬ 
ick  the  Wise,  through  indulgence  money,  built 
another  Elbe  bridge  in  Torgau  whose  cornerstone 
was  laid  in  1491.  But  no  indulgence  was  granted 
for  the  building  of  the  Torgau  bridge,  only  a  dis¬ 
pensation  from  the  strict  fast  which  forbade  the 
use  of  the  so-called  lacticinia,  that  is  butter  and 
milk.  Such  dispensations,  which  were  called 
“Butter-briefs,”  were  frequently  granted  in  Ger¬ 
many  towards  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Be¬ 
sides  the  chancery  fee  for  defraying  the  fixed 
expenses  of  issuing  the  order,  usually  an  additional 
contribution  (composition)  had  to  be  given 
toward  some  ecclesiastical  or  useful  public  work. 
So  it  was  with  the  “Butter-briefs”  of  Saxony. 
Elector  Frederick  the  Wise,  who  wished  to  build 
a  bridge  and  a  chapel  in  Torgau  but  did  not  have 
the  necessary  means  therefor,  turned  to  Rome  for 
assistance.  Pope  Innocent  VIII  granted  the  re¬ 
quest  under  date  of  July  28,  1490,  in  that  he  al¬ 
lowed  the  subjects  of  the  Elector  for  the  space 

•'Urkundenbuch  von  Dresden,  C.  Schramm,  Historischer 
Schauplatz,  in  welchem  die  nuerkwürdigsten  Brücken.  .  .  . 
beschrieben  werden.  Leipzig,  1735.  Urkunden,  4ff.  F.  Dibelius, 
Die  alte  Elbbrücke  in  Dresden,  in  den  Beiträgen  zur  sächsis¬ 
chen  Kirchengeschichte,  VI  (1890),  1141. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


99 


of  twenty  years  to  use  butter  and  milk  foods  on 
the  condition  that  each  one  who  took  advantage 
of  this  indult  should  give  the  twentieth  part  of  a 
Rhenish  gulden  towards  the  building  of  the  bridge 
in  Torgau.  Count  Albrecht  of  Saxony  received 
an  exactly  similar  privilege  in  1491  for  the  rebuild¬ 
ing  of  the  burnt  parish  church  in  Freiburg.^®® 

While  the  bridge  indulgences  played  no  part  in 
the  Torgau  undertaking,  we  meet  them  again  in 
the  city  of  Leipzig,  whose  environs  even  today  are 
frequently  flooded  by  the  many  branched  rivers 
Elster,  Pleisse  and  Parthe.  In  order  to  lessen  the 
danger  of  the  high  waters,  the  magistrate  had  in 
1430  undertaken  extensive  measures  for  building 
canals,  dams  and  bridges/®^  Here,  too,  must  the 
Church  help.  Since  the  city  could  not  meet  the 
great  cost,  messengers  were  sent  out  to  collect 
contributions.  In  a  document  of  the  year  1434, 
Bishop  John  of  Merseburg  admonished  his  clergy 
to  aid  the  alms-gatherers  according  to  their 
power;  in  addition  he  granted  an  indulgence  of 
forty  days  and  a  quarantine  for  charitable  contri¬ 
butions.  God’s  will,  he  declares,  places  upon  him 
the  duty,  not  only  of  bearing  the  cares  of  the 
Church,  but  also  of  furthering  the  building  of 
roads  and  bridges  whereby  poor  pilgrims  and 
others,  who  travel  here  and  there  for  the  com- 

'®®Chronicon  Torgaviae  bei  J.  B.  Menckcnius,  Scriptores  rerum 
gerraanicorum,  II,  571  ff.,  Lipsiae,  1728.  Schramm,  Schauplatz. 
Urkunden,  Szff.  H.  Ermisch,  Urkundenbuch  der  Stadt  Freiberg, 
I  (Codex  diplom.  Sax.  Reg.,  II,  12),  562^.,  Leipzig,  1883. 

'"‘“Magnum  et  sumptuosum  asdificium  inceperunt  ad  facien¬ 
dum  passagia,  pontes  et  fossata,”  says  the  Bishop  of  Merseburg 
in  his  indulgence  brief. 


100  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


mon  good,  may  suffer  no  misfortune  on  the  way. 
Since  now  so  many  merchants  and  pilgrims  fre¬ 
quent  Leipzig  and  often  encounter  dangerous 
floods,  he  prayed  the  faithful  to  lend  a  helping 
hand  to  the  useful  public  works  undertaken  by 
the  city.^°^ 

In  the  year  1461  Pius  II  granted  to  the  city  of 
Breslau  a  plenary  indulgence,  the  returns  from 
which  were  to  be  applied  partly  to  the  municipal 
hospitals,  partly  for  the  bridges,  streets,  and  forti¬ 
fications.^”®  A  year  previous,  at  the  request  of 
the  Breslau  city  council,  the  Papal  Legate,  Hier¬ 
onymus  Lando,  had  issued  an  indulgence  of  forty 
days  for  a  bridge  near  the  city,  to  which  indulgence 
the  Bishop  of  Breslau  had  added  another  forty 
days.^”* 

The  same  Legate  in  1463  granted  an  indulgence 
of  one  year  and  forty  days  for  a  bridge  over  the 
Oder  at  Glogau  in  Silesia.^”® 

By  instruction  of  the  local  archbishop,  indul¬ 
gences  were  published  about  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century  for  a  bridge  in  Prague.^”® 

Indulgences  for  bridgebuilding,  to  judge  from 
contemporary  sources,  seem  likewise  to  have  been 
granted  very  frequently  in  England.  A  great 

V.  Posern-Klett,  Urkundenbuch  der  Stadt  Leipzig,  I, 
i24flF.  (Codex  diplom.  Sax.  Reg.,  II,  8). 

^°*Scriptores  rerum  silesiacarum,  VIII,  55,  60. 

^“Idem,  37f. 

*®®The  indulgence  brief  has  been  printed  by  F.  Minsberg,  Ges¬ 
chichte  der  Stadt  und  Festung  Gross-Glogau,  I,  440!.,  Glogau, 

1853- 

^®^Formelbuch  des  ersten  Prager  Erzbischofs  Arnest  von 
Pardubic,  hrsg.  von  F.  Tadra  ira  Archiv  für  österreichische 
Geschichte,  LXI  (1880),  395. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


101 


number  of  such  indulgences  are  recorded  in  the 
acts  of  Archbishop  Walter  Gray  of  York  (1215- 
55).  The  published  acts  begin  with  the  year 
1225.  Immediately  under  the  first  official  business 
of  this  year  is  the  grant  of  an  indulgence  of  ten 
days  for  the  Elvet  bridge  in  Durham.  Then  fol¬ 
low  similar  grants:  in  1228,  thirteen  days’  indul¬ 
gence  for  the  Otley  bridge  in  the  county  York,  ten 
days  for  an  embankment  in  Podesmed;  in  1230, 
ten  days  for  the  high  road  between  Beverley  and 
Bentley,  thirteen  days  for  the  Hoybel  bridge  in 
Nottingham;  in  1233,  ten  days  for  a  bridge  in 
Wetherby.^®^  The  contributions  for  the  build¬ 
ing  of  roads  and  bridges  were  ranked  by  the  Eng¬ 
lish  churchman  among  the  “works  of  mercy,” 
on  a  par  with  the  charitable  alms  for  churches  and 
hospitals,  which  Archbishop  Gray  likewise  fre¬ 
quently  remembered  with  indulgences. 

From  1279  to  1285  William  Wickwane  held 
the  archbishopric  of  York.  Also  in  his  acts 
bridge-indulgences  are  frequently  mentioned. 
Thus  in  1279  he  granted  an  indulgence  of  forty 
days  for  two  bridges  at  Doncaster,  another  of 
twenty  days  for  a  bridge  and  dam  in  Mattersey.^'’® 
His  successor,  John  Romanus  (1286-95),  issued 
indulgences  of  twenty  days  for  bridges  in  Stam¬ 
ford  and  Gloucester. 

Still  more  plentifully  did  Richard  Kellawe, 

Register  or  Rolls  of  Walter  Gray,  4,  20,  24,  39,  42,  60, 
Durham,  1872  (Publications  of  the  Surtees  Society,  LVI). 

^®®The  Register  of  William  Wickwane,  21,  300,  Durham,  1907 
(Surtees  Society,  CXIV). 

‘“^The  Register  of  John  le  Romeyn,  I,  7f.,  10,  Durham,  1913 
(Surtees  Society,  CXXIII). 


102  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


Bishop  of  Durham  from  13  ii  to  1316,  distribute 
such  privileges:  in  1313,  an  indulgence  of  forty 
days  for  the  Whytton  bridge  in  Weredale;  in 
1314,  likewise  one  of  forty  days  for  contributions 
or  personal  service  for  the  improvement  of  a  much 
used  road  between  Brotherton  and  Ferribridge; 
in  the  same  year  forty  days  for  the  Were  bridge  at 
Auckland,  which  some  men,  moved  by  God  (auc- 
tore  Domino) ,  had  begun  for  the  common  use,  but 
which  they  could  not  finish  without  foreign  aid; 
besides,  forty  days  for  a  bridge  in  Botyton,  and 
again  forty  days  for  a  bridge  and  road  between 
Billingham  and  Noston;  and  in  1316,  forty  days 
for  a  bridge  in  Carleton  and  Hatley.^^® 

The  popes,  also,  granted  numerous  bridge  indul¬ 
gences  for  England.  Urban  V,  1364,  for  North 
Stoneham  (diocese  of  Winchester)  Clement 
VII,  1384,  for  Cowal  (diocese  of  Argyle) 
Boniface  IX,  1391,  for  Islepe  (diocese  of  Lin¬ 
coln)  and  Schelf  rod  (diocese  of  Ely)  in  1400 
forToryton  (diocese  of  Exeter),  Kerdington  (di¬ 
ocese  of  Lincoln),  and  Bradeforde  (diocese  of 
Salisbury)  in  1401  for  Stracerton  (diocese  of 
Salisbury)  and  Corbrig  (diocese  of  Durham) 
in  1402  for  Fordynbrygghe  (diocese  of  Win- 

“’’Registrum  Palatinum  Dunelmense.  The  Register  of  Rich¬ 
ard  Kell  awe,  I,  442,  507,  525,  615,  642;  II,  780,  London,  1873-74 
(Reruni  Brkannicarum  medii  aevi  Scriptores,  LXII). 

“^Bliss-Twemlow,  Calendar  of  Entries  in  the  Papal  Registers 
Relating  to  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  Papal  Letters,  IV,  48, 
London,  1902. 

^^Tdem,  249. 

“Tdem,  399,  406. 

“‘Papal  Letters  V  (1904),  272,  317,  339. 

“'Idem,  379,  408. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


103 


ehester)  Innocent  VII,  1405,  for  a  bridge 
which  a  priest  of  the  diocese  of  Lichfield  wished 
to  build  Martin  V,  1420,  for  a  bridge  which 
the  pastor  at  Liston  in  the  diocese  of  St.  Andrew’s 
intended  to  build;  1427  for  Melrose  (diocese  of 
Glasgow),  Teynburghe  (diocese  of  Exeter),  for 
a  bridge  and  road  at  Boston  (diocese  of  Lincoln)  ; 
1429  for  Whitby  (diocese  of  York)  Eugene 
IV  for  Dumfries  (diocese  of  Glasgow)  ;  1437 
for  a  road  and  bridge  at  Winnebornminster  (dio- 
ese  of  Salisbury)  ;  in  1440  for  a  bridge  which  the 
pastor  had  begun  to  build  from  his  own  resources 
at  Dunkeld  (diocese  of  Exeter)  ;  and  in  1445  for 
Newport  (diocese  of  St.  David’s). 

*^*Papal  Letters,  IV,  351. 

“^Twemlow,  Papal  Letters,  VI  (1904),  54. 

”*Twemlow,  VII  (1906),  152,  522,  524;  VIII  (1909),  23,  167. 

”*Twemlow,  VIII,  347,  658;  IX  (1912),  no,  248,  486. 


2.  DAMS  AND  ROADS.  HARBORS  AND 

FORTIFICATIONS 

COLONIZATION  PROJECTS 

EXT  to  the  bridge  indulgences  stand  those 
for  dams,  embankments,  and  roads.  Even 
Albert  the  Great  has  enumerated  the  improve¬ 
ment  of  roads  (reparatio  viarum  communium) 
among  the  works  pleasing  to  God  for  which  indul¬ 
gences  might  be  granted.^  Grants  for  such  ob¬ 
jects  have  already  frequently  been  mentioned  in 
connection  with  the  indulgences  for  bridges.  But 
still  more  can  be  mentioned,  coming  as  well  from 
popes  as  from  bishops. 

Siegfried  of  Hildesheim  (1281)  promised  an 
indulgence  of  forty  days  for  contributions  for 
the  improvement  of  the  “long  dam”  at  Vechelde.* 
The  grant  of  the  indulgence  declares  that  it  is  a 
work  of  mercy  to  improve  dangerous  roads.  John 
XXII  in  1328  granted  an  indulgence  of  sixty  days 
for  the  rebuilding  of  a  “long  dam”  belonging  to  a 
monastery  in  Stavoren  in  the  diocese  of  Utrecht.* 
In  1401  Boniface  IX  granted  an  indulgence  of 

^Opera  omnia,  XX,  643,  Parisiis,  1893. 

’Urkundenbuch  der  stadt  Braunschweig,  II,  139,  Braunschweig,  • 
1900.  In  the  Latin  document  the  word  used  is  “pons  longus.” 
But  that  it  does  not  mean  a  bridge,  but  an  embankment,  is  clear 
from  the  added  remark:  “Aflat  to  dem  Damme.”  In  the  North 
by  “bridge”  they  understand  not  only  what  we  do  by  that  word, 
but  in  general  a  road  built  over  marshy  ground.  Cf.  Histor¬ 
isches  Jarhbuch  1898,  302. 

*Lettres  communes  de  Jean  XXII,  n.  40181.  G.  Brom,  Bul- 
larium  Trajectense,  I,  327,  Haga-Comitis,  1891,  In  the  papal 
document  it  is  called:  “for  the  repairing  of  a  certain  great  and 
very  long  bridge.”  This  evidently  means  an  embankment. 
The  monastery  stood  on  the  shore  of  the  sea. 

104 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


105 


seven  years  and  seven  quarantines  for  the  improve¬ 
ment  of  the  King’s  highway  which  ran  from  Glou¬ 
cester  to  London,  and  a  further  indulgence  of 
seven  years  for  a  road  near  York.'^  Martin  V, 
in  1419,  issued  indulgences  for  an  embankment 
in  the  diocese  of  St.  David’s,  and  in  1425  for  a 
road  near  York.®  For  the  rebuilding  of  the  de¬ 
stroyed  dikes  in  the  Netherlands,  Leo  X  in  1515 
at  the  solicitation  of  the  Archduke  Charles,  later 
the  emperor,  granted  a  plenary  indulgence,  which 
might  be  preached  during  three  years.®  In  the 
year  1503  the  Papal  Legate,  Cardinal  Raymund 
Peraudi,  promised  an  indulgence  of  one  hundred 
days  to  those  who  would  contribute  to  the  build¬ 
ing  and  upkeep  of  various  roads  in  the  duchy  of 
Brunswick.'^ 

In  the  year  1306  the  council  of  Stralsund  de¬ 
termined  to  erect  a  lighthouse  at  a  dangerous  place 
of  the  sound.  “However,  because  there  was  so 
much  of  this  building  and  a  whole  bulwark  had  to 
be  erected  there  (the  southern  point  of  the  island 
of  Hiddensee),  Bishop  Olaf  of  Roskilde  an¬ 
nounced  an  indulgence  for  all  who  would  make  a 
contribution  to  the  work.”® 

For  the  building  of  a  harbor  in  Reval  the  local 


‘Bliss-Twemlow,  V,  39of.,  398. 

‘Twemlow,  VII,  115,  470. 

*G.  Brom,  De  Dijk-Aflaat  vor  Karel  V  in  Bijdragen  en 
Mededeelingen  van  het  Historisch  Genootschap  te  Utrecht, 
XXXII,  407-59,  Amsterdam,  1911. 

^Die  Chroniken  der  deutschen  Städte  XVI  (i88o),  533. 

®A.  G.  Schwartz,  Kurtze  Einleitung  zur  Geographie^  des 
Norder-Teutschlandes,  138,  Greifswald,  1745.  C.  G.  Fabricius, 
Urkunden  zur  Geschichte  des  Fürstenthums  Rügen  unter  den 
eingeborenen  Fürsten,  IV,  1,  51!.,  Berlin,  1859. 


106  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FAÖTOR 


Bishop,  Olaus,  in  the  year  1336  issued  an  indul¬ 
gence  of  forty  days,  and  at  the  same  time  con¬ 
firmed  the  indulgence  which  Bishop  Englebert  of 
Dorpat  had  granted  for  the  same  purpose.® 

For  the  erection  of  a  breakwater  in  the  harbor 
of  Naples,  Boniface  VIII  (1302)  granted  an  in¬ 
dulgence  of  one  hundred  days,  which  could  be 
gained  either  through  personal  labor  or  through 
a  monetary  contribution.^®  An  indulgence  of  ten 
days,  which  likewise  could  be  gained  either  by 
personal  work  or  money,  was  granted  by  John 
XXII  (1317)  for  an  embankment  which  the  city 
of  Aquileja  was  building  as  protection  against 
floods.^^ 

Indulgences  were  also  granted  for  the  building 
of  fortifications.  Thus  in  the  year  1241  a  “great 
wall”  was  to  be  built  in  Lübeck,  “dar  wart  aflat 
to  gegeben;  des  drogen  dar  to  vrowen  unde  man, 
rike  und  arm.”^^  For  Breslau,  at  the  solicitation 
of  the  magistrates,  Pius  II  in  1461  granted  a  plen¬ 
ary  indulgence,  part  of  whose  proceeds  were  to 
be  devoted  to  the  city’s  fortifications.^®  In  the 
year  1430,  when  Leipzig  was  threatened  by  the 
Hussites,  the  Bishop  of  Merseburg  at  the  request 
of  the  city  council  issued  an  indulgence  of  forty 
days  to  all  those  who  on  Sundays  and  holy  days 
would  help  in  the  building  of  the  fortifications.^^ 

"Livländisches  Urkundenbuch,  II,  307,  Reval,  1855. 

*®Les  Registres  de  Boniface  VIII,  n.  4719. 

“Lettres  communes  de  Jean  XXII,  n.  5649. 

"Chroniken  der  deutschen  Städte,  XIX,  88. 

"Scriptures  rerum  Silesiacarum  VIII,  55,  60,  152,  192,  Breslau, 
1873. 

"Urkundenbuch  der  Stadt  Leipzig,  I,  ii6f.  (Codex  diplona, 
S«x.  Reg.,  II,  9). 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


107 


Especially  in  the  border  lands  where  there  was 
a  question  of  protecting  the  Christian  people 
against  the  inroads  of  infidels,  indulgences  were 
often  granted  in  favor  of  fortifications,  both  for 
monetary  contributions  and  for  personal  service. 
Such  indulgences  were  given  by  Honorius  III 
(1222)  for  a  fort  of  the  Templars,^^  by  Gregory 
IX  (1233)  and  Innocent  IV  (1245)  for  Prus¬ 
sia,^®  by  Clement  V  ( 1308)  for  Famagusta  on  the 
Island  of  Cyprus, by  Clement  VI  (1349)  for 
Litauen,^®  by  John  XXII  (1317)  for  Spain,^* 
by  Clement  VII  (1390)  for  Smyrna,^®  by  Nich¬ 
olas  V  (1452,  1453)  for  Ceuta^^  and  Medina,^^ 
by  Sixtus  IV  (1481)  for  Vienna,^®  by  Leo  X 
(1519)  for  Kiev.^"^ 

From  Leo  X  comes  another  fortification  indul¬ 
gence  that,  however,  did  not  have  the  protection 
of  Christendom  in  view.  In  the  war  that  broke 
out  in  1513  between  England  and  Scotland,  the 
fortified  town  of  Norham,  which  belonged  to  the 
Bishop  of  Durham,  was  stormed  and  destroyed 
by  the  Scots.  In  1514  the  English  sought  in 

“Regesta  Honorii  III,  n.  4098.  Bliss,  Papal  Letters,  I,  88. 

^‘Preussisches  Urkundenbuch,  I,  i,  73!.,  123,  Königsberg,  1882. 

^’Raynaldus,  Annales  eccl.,  1308,  n.  38. 

'"Bliss,  Papal  Letters,  III,  331. 

'"Lettres  communes  de  Jean  XXII,  n.  4559. 

Bosio,  Dell  ’Istoria  della  sacra  Religione  di.  S.  Giovanni 
Gierosolimitano,  II,  139,  Roma,  1629. 

'■"Fr.  Kayser,  Papast  Nikolaus  V  und  die  Maurenkämpfe  der 
Spanier  und  Portugiesen,  im  Histor.  Jahrbuch,  VIII  (1887), 
625. 

“Raynauldus,  1453,  n.  18. 

“Quellen  zur  Geschichte  der  Stadt  Wien,  II,  3269,  Wien, 
1904. 

**Schulte,  Die  Fugger  in  Rome,  I,  66. 


108  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


Rome  a  plenary  indulgence  for  the  rebuilding  of 
this  border  fortress.  Leo  X  knew  well  that  the 
granting  of  an  indulgence  for  such  an  object  was 
something  “rare  and  unusual”  (res  rara  et  inso- 
lita).  But  since  King  Henry  VIII  himself  asked 
it,  the  Pope  thought  himself  bound  to  grant  the 
English  request.^® 

Greater  justification  had  the  indulgence  which 
the  Papal  Legate,  Eudes  of  Chateauroux,  granted 
in  1252,  during  the  time  of  the  Crusades  when 
there  was  question  of  strengthening  Jaffa  and 
other  cities  against  the  attacks  of  the  Saracens.^® 
The  King  of  France,  St.  Louis  IX,  who  was  then 
in  Palestine,  shared  personally  in  the  work;  laden 
with  a  hamper,  he  carried  stones  and  mortar  “in 
order  to  gain  the  indulgence,”  as  his  companion 
and  biographer,  the  Sire  de  Joinville,  relates.^^ 

Previously,  when  Louis  IX  and  the  Crusaders 
were  still  in  Egypt,  the  Papal  Legate  had  granted 
an  indulgence  of  one  year  to  all  those  who  would 
help  in  filling  up  the  arm  of  a  canal.  Also  at 
this  time  the  King  set  a  good  example  and  carried 
earth  in  his  mantle.^® 

^^Regesta  Leonis  X,  n.  6684,  7745,  13959.  J*  S«  Brewer,  Let¬ 
ters  and  Papers,  Foreign  and  Domestic,  of  the  Reign  of 
Henry  VIII,  I,  n.  4284,  4461,  4724,  4735;  II,  n.  108,  109,  no, 
London,  1862-64. 

^Also  Innocent  IV  in  1253  granted  an  indulgence  in  favor 
of  fortifying  Jaffa.  Berger,  Les  registres  d’Innocent  IV,  n. 
6463. 

de  Joinville,  Histoire  de  Saint  Louis,  edition  Wailly,  284, 
Paris,  1874.  “Le  roy  meismes  y  vis-je  mainte  foiz  porter  la  hote 
aus  fosses,  pour  avoir  le  pardon.”  Cf.  Vie  de  S.  Louis  ecrite 
par  le  confesseur  de  la  reine  Marguerite.  Bouquet,  Recueil  des 
historiens  des  Gaules,  XX,  103. 

*®Bouquet,  XX,  103:  “Le  roy  portait  en  giron  de  sa  chape  la 
terre  ä  cel  lieu.” 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


109 


So  much  did  this  equally  enlightened  and  pious 
King  prize  the  indulgences  of  the  Church !  And 
this  high  appreciation  Louis  IX  sought  to  instill 
into  his  children.  In  the  Christian  admonitions 
which  shortly  before  his  death  he  addressed  to  his 
son  Philip,  he  urged  the  heir  apparent  to  seek 
often  to  gain  indulgences.^^  A  similar  admonition 
he  directed  to  his  daughter  Isabella,  Queen  of 
Navarre.^® 

Finally,  we  must  recall  the  indulgences  that 
were  granted  for  colonization  projects. 

When  in  1229  King  James  I  of  Aragon  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  capturing  the  Island  of  Majorca,  which 
since  798  had  been  in  the  possession  of  the  Moors, 
Gregory  IX  shortly  afterwards  (1230)  granted 
to  all  those  who  would  settle  there  the  same 
plenary  indulgence  that  could  be  gained  by  taking 
part  in  a  Crusade  to  the  Holy  Land.  In  stating 
his  reason  for  this  indulgence,  the  Pope  declared 
that  it  was  not  sufficient  to  conquer  foreign  lands, 
it  was  necessary  to  colonize  them.®^ 

In  the  year  1253  Innocent  IV  authorized  the 
Bishop  of  Aleria  on  the  Island  of  Corsica  to  grant 
to  those  who  would  settle  in  the  depopulated  city 
the  indulgence  that  he  would  find  profitable  for 
their  salvation.^^  The  determination  of  the 

’"“Pourchaces  volonticrs  les  pardons.”  H.  Fr.  Delabordc,  Le 
texte  primitif  des  Enseignements  de  S.  Louis  a  son  fils,  in 
Bibliotheque  de  I’Ecole  des  Charles,  LXXIII  (1912),  241,  252» 

*Tdem,  250. 

®’Auvray,  Les  registres  de  Gregoire  IX,  n.  524.  Potthast, 
Regesta  Pontificum  Roman.,  n.  8641. 

'Merger,  Les  registres  d’lnnocent  IV,  n.  6335.  Potthast, 
n.  14888. 


110  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


amount  of  the  indulgence  was  left  to  the  bishop. 

Alexander  VI  in  1493  granted  a  plenary  indul¬ 
gence  to  those  who,  with  the  permission  of  the 
Spanish  King,  would  settle  in  America.^® 

"Raynaldus,  Annales  eccl.,  1493,  n.  25. 


3.  GUILDS.  MARKSMEN  CLUBS 


äLINCE  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  civil  and  the 
ecclesiastical  were  closely  bound  together, 
the  guilds  stand  out  with  special  distinctness. 
“From  the  union  of  labor  with  religion  and  the 
Church,  every  guild  received  the  character  of  a 
religious  corporation.  Each  one  had  its  special 
patron  saints,  who  according  to  legend  or  history 
had  once  belonged  to  the  same  guild  or  had  been 
connected  with  it  in  some  way,  and  whose  feast- 
day  was  ushered  in  with  church-going  and  solemn 
processions.  Moreover,  each  one  made  contribu¬ 
tions  to  ecclesiastical  and  charitable  objects,  stood 
in  close  relationship  to  some  special  church,  and 
had  therein  its  own  pictures  and  its  own  altar,  not 
rarely  even  its  own  chapel.  ...  At  certain 
regular  times  they  had  Mass  read  for  the  living 
and  the  dead.”^ 

No  wonder,  then,  that  the  guilds,  like  the 
purely  religious  brotherhoods,  received  indul¬ 
gences  from  bishops  and  popes.  So,  for  example, 
Sixtus  IV  (1471-84)  in  confirming  the  guild  or 
brotherhood  of  merchants  founded  in  1466  at 
Rostock  granted  to  the  members  the  privilege  of 
gaining  a  plenary  indulgence  from  their  confessor 
once  during  their  lives  and  again  at  the  hour  of 
death.  In  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
the  Cardinal  Legate,  Raimund  Peraudi,  approved 

‘Janssen,  I,  406. 


Ill 


112  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


the  Brotherhood  anew  and  on  this  occasion 
granted  to  the  members  an  indulgence  of  one  hun¬ 
dred  days  as  often  as  they  accompanied  the  body 
of  a  dead  member  to  the  grave  or  lent  a  helping 
hand  for  the  support  of  the  brotherhood.^ 

It  may  seem  strange  that  even  the  marksmen 
societies  were  granted  indulgences.  But  consid¬ 
ering  these  societies  more  closely,  one  will  not  be 
surprised  that  they  were  favored  by  the  Church. 
In  the  Middle  Ages  the  marksmen  clubs,  found  in 
almost  every  city,  formed  as  it  were  the  nucleus 
of  the  civil  protection  and  defense.® 

We  can  readily  understand,  therefore,  that  not 
only  the  temporal  but  also  the  ecclesiastical  au¬ 
thorities  should,  according  to  their  power,  seek 
to  further  these  very  useful  organizations.  Cer¬ 
tainly  the  marksmen  clubs  had  the  duty  of  pro¬ 
tecting  the  Church  also  and  the  religious  institu¬ 
tions  against  hostile  attack.  Hence  it  comes  that 
these  organizations  always  had  a  religious  char¬ 
acter. 

“Without  exception,”  writes  a  Protestant  min¬ 
ister,  every  marksmen’s  brotherhood  had  its  spe¬ 
cial  relation  to  the  Church.  Their  own  altars 
with  vicars  were  often  erected  and  endowed  in 

’Jahrbücher  des  Vereins  für  mecklenburgische  Geschichte, 
VII,  192,  Schwerin,  1842. 

*E.  Jacobs,  Die  Schützenkleinodien  und  das  Papageienschies¬ 
sen.  Ein  Beitrag  zur  Kulturgeschichte  des  Mittelalters,  w.  f., 
Wernigerode,  1887.  L.  A.  Delaunay,  Etude  sur  les  anciennes 
compagnies  d’archers,  d’arbaletriers  et  d’arquebusiers,  3,  Paris, 
1879:  “Au  moyen  äge,  le  veritable  element  de  force,  de  securite 
et  de  liberte  pour  la  plupart  des  villes  residait  dans  les  asso¬ 
ciations  bourgeoises  connues  sous  le  nom  d’arbaletricrs  ou 
d’arquebusiers.  Elles  etaient  la  base  de  la  puissance  et  de 
rindepcndence  du  pouvoir  communal,” 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


113 


the  local  church.  On  appointed  days  the  whole 
brotherhood  appeared  at  Mass,  if  services  were 
held  for  the  departed  souls  of  former  members 
or  even  for  the  brotherhood  itself.”^  The  medi¬ 
eval  marksmen’s  societies,  remarks  another  Prot¬ 
estant  author,  “according  to  different  sources 
were  very  pious. “They  were  the  chief  up¬ 
holders  of  the  Romish  Church.”®  Who,  then  will 
wonder  that  these  “pious”  organizations  were  fa¬ 
vored  with  indulgences? 

In  an  old  account  “Of  the  Origin  of  the  Praise¬ 
worthy  Brotherhood  and  Marksmen’s  Club  of 
the  City  of  Leipzig,  and  What  the  Same  Hold 
for  Regulation  and  Custom,”  it  is  related  that  in 
the  year  1445  the  Bishop  of  Merseburg  at  the 
ratification  of  the  Brotherhood  granted  to  the 
members  an  indulgence  of  forty  days.^ 

Not  without  reason  were  the  Shooting  Brothers 
of  Leipzig  favored  by  their  ordinary.  In  the 
year  1482,  “moved  by  ardent  love  and  eager  desire 
to  increase  the  praise  and  service  of  God,”  they 
founded  with  five  hundred  Rhenish  guldens  in  the 

^A.  Reinecke,  Die  Schützenbrüderschaft  zu  Osterwieck,  in  der 
Zeitschrift  des  Harz-Vereins  für  Geschichte,  XXVII,  683, 
Wernigerode,  1894. 

®J.  Chr.  Hendel,  Archiv  für  deutsche  Schützengesellschaften, 
II,  IO,  Halle,  1801. 

®Jakobs,  57.  Cf.  Delaunay,  75;  “En  belgique  comme  en 
France,  dans  les  antiques  confreries  (der  Schützen),  tout  prenait 
un  caractere  religieux:  aussi  chacune  d’elles  possedait  une 
chapelle  qui  etait  entretenue  ä  ses  frais.  Tous  les  ans,  au  jour 
du  patron,  eile  y  faisait  celebrer  une  messe  avec  grande  pompe; 
tous  les  membres  de  la  confrerie  etaient  tenus  de  s’y  presenter. 
On  y  faisait  aussi  un  service  funebre  pour  les  confreres  decedes. 
De  meme  l’ouverture  des  jeux  ou  exercises  etait  toujours 
precedee  d’une  messe  solenneile  du  Saint  Esprit  ä  laauelle  tous 
les  compagnons  assistaient.” 

’Hendel,  III,  176. 


114  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 


parish  church  of  St.  Nicholas,  where  their  broth¬ 
erhood  was  obliged  to  hear  Mass,  a  special  bene¬ 
fice  whose  incumbent  was  bound  to  read  five 
Masses  weekly.® 

Two  years  later  they  received  from  the  Papal 
Legate,  Bartilmäus  de  Maraschis,  who  spent  a 
day  in  Leipzig  in  the  summer  of  1484,  a  new  in¬ 
dulgence  which  the  Bishop  of  Merseburg  con¬ 
firmed.® 

Some  years  earlier,  on  February  4,  1466,  an¬ 
other  Papal  Legate  in  Breslau,  Bishop  Rudolf 
von  Lavant,  likewise  granted  an  indulgence  to 
the  local  brotherhood  of  marksmen.  The  Bres¬ 
lauer  brothers  told  the  papal  nuncio  how  they 
came  together  on  certain  days  and  “practised 
themselves  in  the  art  of  shooting  the  crossbow  and 
gun,’’  in  order  that  they  might  the  better  protect 
the  common  good  and  defend  the  city  against  the 
heretics  (Hussites)  and  other  bad  people.  For 
the  honor  of  God  and  out  of  devotion  to  the  holy 
martyrs,  Fabian  and  Sebastian,  they  yearly,  on 
the  feast  of  these  Saints,  “had  Mass  celebrated 
with  organ  and  singing  and  trumpets,  nobly  and 
solemnly.”  If  now  the  brotherhood  were  con¬ 
firmed  by  “the  papal  power”  and  given  an  indul¬ 
gence,  then  others  of  their  fellow  citizens  would 
the  more  readily  join,  and  the  city  could  be  the 
better  defended. 

The  legate  willingly  granted  their  request.  By 
the  papal  power  he  approved  the  brotherhood 

*Urkundenbuch  der  Stadt  Leipzig,  II,  320!. 

*Hendel,  III,  177.  Here  the  Legate  is  erroneously  called 
Bartholomäus  Mauritius. 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


115 


and  granted  an  indulgence  of  forty  days  to  all 
the  members,  provided  they  had  contritely  con¬ 
fessed  their  sins,  as  well  as  to  all  the  other  faith¬ 
ful  who  would  devoutly  assist  at  the  above  Mass.^® 

In  the  year  1481  the  same  Rudolf,  who  in  the 
meantime  had  become  Bishop  of  Breslau,  granted 
another  indulgence  to  the  marksmen’s  guild  in 
Liebenthal.  The  brotherhood  had  pledged  itself 
“always  to  use  its  military  power  for  the  defense 
of  all  Christians”;  through  zealous  church-going 
and  prayer  the  members  “were  to  be  strengthened 
to  constant  bravery.”^^ 

Archbishop  Dietrich  of  Cologne  in  1420 
granted  an  indulgence  of  forty  days  to  the  marks¬ 
men’s  society  of  Neuss. Archbishop  Ruprecht 
of  Cologne  in  1473  granted  in  favor  of  the 
brotherhood  of  marksmen  in  Bonn  a  similar  indul¬ 
gence  to  all  those  who  after  contrite  confession 
would  attend  High  Mass  and  the  procession  on 
the  feast  of  St.  Sebastian,  devoutly  recite  five 
Paters  and  Aves,  and  make  a  monetary  contri¬ 
bution  to  the  brotherhood  for  church  purposes.^® 

Chr.  Kundraann,  Silesii  in  nummis,  oder  berühmte  Schle¬ 
sier  in  Müntzen,  425L,  Breslau.  1738.  Kundmann  (p.  424), 
whom  others  follow  (for  example,  A.  Edelmann,  Schützenwesen 
und  Schützenfeste  der  deutschen  Städte  vom  13  bis  zum  18 
Jahrhundert,  10,  München,  1890),  asserts  that  the  indulgence 
was  granted  to  those  brothers  who  would  attend  the  shooting 
and  practice.  There  is  nothing  to  be  seen  of  this  condition  in 
the  indulgence  brief  that  Kundmann  prints. 

“G.  Schoenaich,  Zur  Geschichte  des  schlesischen  Schützen¬ 
wesens,  in  der  Zeitschrift  des  Vereins  für  Geschichte  Schlesiens, 
XL  (1906),  200,  206. 

“K.  Tücking,  Geschichte  der  kirchlichen  Einrichtungen  in  der 
Stadt  Neuss,  352,  Neuss,  1886-90. 

‘‘Annalen  des  historischen  Vereins  für  den  Niederrhein, 
XXVIII  (1876),  117. 


116  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 

In  the  year  1477  Bishop  Alexander  of  Forli, 
who  at  that  time  was  papal  legate  in  Basel,  gave 
a  brief  to  the  local  brotherhood  of  marksmen, 
wherein  he  granted  an  indulgence  of  one  hundred 
days  to  the  members  as  also  to  others  of  both 
sexes  who  would  attend  the  brotherhood’s  re¬ 
ligious  services  on  certain  days.  The  legate  re¬ 
marked  further  that  he  gave  this  indulgence  in 
order  that  the  people  might  more  zealously  attend 
church. 

In  the  upper  Alsatian  town  of  Rufach,  that 
formerly  belonged  to  the  diocese  of  Basel,  a  gun 
and  crossbow  brotherhood  was  formed  in  1508. 
The  bishop  confirmed  it  with  the  grant  of  an  indul¬ 
gence:  “Whatever  brothers  or  sisters  in  this 
said  brotherhood  attend  divine  services,  having 
truly  repented  and  confessed  and  given  their  alms 
thereto,  as  often  as  they  do  this  we  make  them 
share  in  an  indulgence  of  forty  days.”^® 

Women,  therefore,  could  join  the  marksmen’s 
clubs.  Not  as  if  the  “sisters,”  as  the  female  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  brotherhood  were  called,  took  part  in 
the  practice  of  shooting!  What  duties  they  un¬ 
dertook  is  shown  by  the  charter  of  foundation  in 
Rufach:  “It  is  permissible  for  any  married  man 
himself  and  his  honorable  wife,  who  so  desires, 
to  join  the  brotherhood;  but  the  wife  is  not  bound 
to  pay  anything  or  to  do  anything,  but  only  to 

Ochs,  Geschichte  der  Stadt  Basel,  V,  91,  Basel,  1821. 
That  the  legate,  whom  Ochs  does  not  name,  was  Alexander  of 
Forli,  is  evident  from  the  Urkundenbuch  der  Stadt  Basel,  VIII, 
414,  Basel,  1901. 

^'Th.  Walter,  Beiträge  zur  Geschichte  der  Stadt  Rufach,  I, 
Rufach,  19CX). 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


117 


pray,  as  she  wishes,  and  as  here  follows.”  Then 
is  set  forth  how  the  brothers  and  sisters  are 
bound  to  attend  the  Brotherhood’s  Masses.^® 

In  other  places  the  sisters  had  also  to  pay  a 
yearly  fee,  as,  for  example,  in  Leipzig.  “For 
St.  Sebastian’s  day,”  says  the  old,  above-cited 
marksmen’s  book,  “the  master  general  of  the 
day  must  through  the  page  notify  all  the  brothers 
and  sisters  and  pray  them  that  they  should  indi¬ 
vidually  appear  at  St.  Nicholas  early  in  the  morn¬ 
ing  of  the  appointed  day  for  the  procession  to 
the  Mass  and  the  collection,  according  to  ancient 
custom.”  The  page  should  also  be  given  a  list 
of  “all  the  brothers  and  sisters  who  are  in  arrears 
so  that  he  can  diligently  collect  this  amount.” 

Also  in  the  ember  weeks  there  were  common 
divine  services  to  which  the  “page”  had  to  sum¬ 
mon  all  the  brothers  and  sisters.  “On  the  first 
minor  fast  in  the  first  ember  week,  the  page  should 
request  all  the  wives  to  attend  the  Wednesday 
vigil,  and  they  and  the  men  also  to  attend  the 
Mass  and  the  collection  early  on  Thursday.”  The 
same  thing  was  to  be  done  in  the  other  three  ember 
weeks. 

After  the  vigil  or  the  afternoon  service  for 
the  dead  members  a  “collation” — a  fast  day  dish 
of  almonds  and  peas,  “together  with  Leipzig 
beer” — was  served  in  the  society’s  house  to  the 
sisters.  The  society’s  servants  and  their  wives 
were  charged  with  its  prompt  service.  “At  such 
a  collation  the  servant,  together  with  his  wife,  the 

^®Idem,  105. 


118  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 

helper,  were  bound  to  be  present  to  run,  to  draw, 
to  carry.”  For  pay,  “when  the  wives  had  all 
gone,  he  could  take  home  with  him  a  half  quart 
of  beer,  if  it  remained,  not  more.^^ 


^’Hendel,  III,  iSsff. 


4.  MONTES  PIETATIS 


vMNDER  the  name  monies  pietatis  are  to  be 
understood  publicly  useful  credit  organiza¬ 
tions,  which  in  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century  were  founded  in  large  numbers,  especially 
in  upper  and  middle  Italy,  for  the  needs  of  the 
poor  people,  and  which  worked  very  successfully/ 
The  chief  promoters  of  these  foundations  were  the 
Franciscan  Observants  who  were  supported  by  the 
papacy  in  their  striving  to  help  the  needs  of  the 
people.  Since  the  securing  of  working  capital 
at  first  was  a  matter  of  the  greatest  difficulty,  the 
popes  sought  to  encourage  generous  contributions 
through  the  promise  of  indulgences. 

Pius  II  made  the  beginning,  when  in  1463  he 
granted  indulgences  in  favor  of  the  new  founda¬ 
tion  in  Orvieto.^  Later  indulgences  were  issued 
by  Sixtus  IV,  for  Savona  in  1479;^  by  Innocent 
VIII  for  Mantua  in  1486,^  and  for  Verona  in 
1491 by  Alexander  VI  for  Padua  in  1493,®  and 
for  Genoa  in  149 iL  by  Julius  II  for  Bologna  in 
1507;®  and  by  Leo  X  for  the  same  city  in  1514/ 

’H.  Holzapfel,  Die  Anfänge  der  Montes  Pietatis,  München, 

1903. 

■'L.  Fumi,  Codice  diplomatico  della  Citta  d’Orvieto,  723, 
Firenze,  1884  (Documenti  di  storia  italiana,  VIII). 

*Statuti  del  sacro  monte  pieta  di  Roma,  II,  iiff.,  Roma,  1776. 

*B.  de  Bustis,  Defensorium  montis  pietatis,  f.  5,  Hagenau, 

1503- 

'Wadding,  Annales  Minorum,  XIV,  517,  Romae,  1735. 

*Bustis,  f.  5. 

’Wadding,  XV,  545. 

“Statuti,  il,  22ff. 

‘Holzapfel,  99. 


119 


120  INDULGENCES  AS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR 

In  the  solemn  confirmation  which  the  Lateran 
Council  in  1515  gave  to  the  monies  pietatis,  which 
were  hated  on  many  sides,  the  pope  referred  ex¬ 
pressly  to  the  indulgences  that  the  promoters  of 
these  very  useful  organizations  might  gaind® 

From  the  foregoing  discussion,  it  is  sufficiently 
evident  that  various  socially  useful  works,  insti¬ 
tutions,  societies,  enterprises,  and  organizations 
were  furthered  through  indulgences.  With  full 
right,  then,  one  may  assert  that  civil  society  has 
to  thank  the  often  granted  indulgences  for  in¬ 
numerable  benefits. 

This  social  importance  of  indulgences  was  noted 
as  early  as  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  by  a 
distinguished  German  theologian,  Heinrich  von 
Langenstein.  This  scholar  treated  briefly  of  in¬ 
dulgences  in  his  still  unpublished  commentary  on 
Genesis  delivered  as  a  lecture  in  1390  at  the 
Vienna  university.  Therein  he  remarked  that  the 
custom  of  granting  indulgences  was  helpful  to  the 
faithful  in  many  ways.  Because  of  the  indulgences 
to  be  gained  they  attended  sermons  and  divine 
services  with  more  frequency,  and  for  the  erection 
of  churches,  hospitals  and  other  similar  works, 
which  served  for  the  honor  of  God  and  the  com¬ 
mon  good,  they  gave  alms  more  generously. 
From  this  it  is  evident  that  the  granting  of  indul¬ 
gences  redounded  to  the  good  of  both  the  church 
and  of  temporal  society.^^ 

^“Wadding,  XV,  471. 

^^Lectura  super  Genesin,  handschriftlich  auf  der  Münchener 
Staatsbibliothek,  Cod.  lat.,  18146. 

^^Et  ita  videtur  quo  concessio  indulgenciarum  est  ad 
profectum  et  commodum  utriusque  reipublicae,  scilicet  spiritualis 


IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


121 


The  old  theologian,  however,  does  not  fail  to 
call  special  attention  to  the  fact  that  indulgences 
are  also  of  great  importance  for  the  salvation  of 
souls :  it  would  naturally  incite  sinners  to  re¬ 
pentance  to  hear  that  in  so  easy  a  way,  by  merely 
confessing  their  sins  with  contrition,  they  could 
obtain  full  forgiveness.  “Thereby  were  many 
hardened  sinners  brought  to  confession  who  other¬ 
wise  would  not  have  been  moved  thereto.  For 
this  and  similar  reasons  early  teachers  say  that  in¬ 
dulgences  have  value  as  introduced  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.” 


et  temporalis.”  CIm.  18146,  fol.  411.  With  this  expression  of 
a  medieval  theologian,  compare  the  following  from  a  recent 
historian:  “II  ne  faut  pas  oublier  les  services  rendus  ä  la 
societe  tout  entiere  par  ces  usages.  .  .  .  L’figlis  n’a  pas  applique 
seulement  les  dons  ä  ses  besoins,  mais  ä  ceux  de  tous;  travaille 
pour  elle-meme,  mais  pour  le  pays;  restaure  ses  monasteres  ou 
ses  cathedrales,  mais  les  Hotels-Dieu,  les  leproseries,  les 
hospices,  tous  les  asiles  de  la  pauvrete  et  de  la  douleur.  C’est 
par  I’indulgence  encore  qu’elle  a  pu  contribuer  au  progres 
economique:  telle  chausse  eou  telle  route,  tel  pont,  comme  ä  Lyon 
celui  du  Rhone,  ä  Agen,  celui  de  la  Garonne,  ont  pu  etre 
reconstruits.”  P.  Imbart  de  la  Tour,  Les  origines  de  la 
Reforme,  II,  265,  Paris,  1909. 


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and  mind,  his  ugly  mug  forgotten  in  eyes  so  wondrous  wise, 
so  soulful  as.  to  make  him  the  Lord  Macaulay  of  Dogdom, 

When  compared  with  the  puny  bow-wows  of  silly  crocheted 
men  and  so-called  women  who  prefer  these  tiny,  hairy  and 
shapeless  creatures  to  the  smiles  and  dimples  of  a  baby, 
HAPPY,  if  he  heard  you,  would  go  away  with  lowered  head 
and  dropped  tail,  ashamed  of  Adam’s  taste  in  listing  him 
as — a  dog. 

THIS  BOOK  SHOULD  BE  IN  EVERY  HOME, 

IN  EVERY  SCHOOL 

If  you  are  thinking  about  getting  married  read  JUST 
HAPPY  to  him — to  her.  It  will  encourage  him  to  ask — 
she  will  surely  whisper  Yes,  for  both  will  want  just  such 
a  home  as  HAPPY  and  his  pals  had. 

Price  $1.75  net.  Postpaid  $1.85 


THE  DEVIN-ADAIR  COMPANY,  Publishers 

437  FIFTH  AVENUE  NEW  YORK 


“Life  is  too  short  for  reading  inferior  bookß” — Bryce 


Clean  literature  and  clean  womanhood  are 
the  keystones  of  civilization — and 

MY 

UNKNOWN  CHUM 

(“AGUECHEEK”) 

Foreword  by  HENRY  GARRITY 

‘‘is  the  cleanest  and  best  all-round  book  in 
the  English  Language” 

“An  Ideal  Chum.”  You  will  read  it  often  and  like  it  better 
the  oftener  you  read  it — once  read  it  will  be  your  chiun  as 
it  is  now  the  chum  of  thousands.  You  will  see  France, 
Belgium,  England,  Italy  and  America — men  and  women  in 
a  new  light  that  has  nought  to  do  with  the  horrors  of  war. 

It  fulfills  to  the  letter  Lord  Rosebery’s  definition  of  the 
threefold  function  of  a  book — “To  furnish  Information^ 
Literature,  Recreation.” 


What  critical  book-lovers  say  : 

SIR  CHARLES  FITZPATRICK,  Chief  Jusuce  of  Canada:  “  ‘My  Unknown 
Chum'  is  a  wonderful  book.  I  can  repeat  some  of  the  pages  almost  by 
heart.  I  buy  it  to  give  to  those  I  love  and  to  friends  who  can  appreciate 
a  good  book.” 

THE  N.  Y.  SUN :  “They  don't  write  such  English  nowadays.  The  book  is 
charming.” 

PHILIP  GIBES,  most  brilliant  of  the  English  war  correspondents:  **  'My 
Unknown  Chum'  is  delightful,” 


Price,  $1.90  net.  Postpaid,  $2.00 

THE  DEVIN-ADAIR  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 

437  Fifth  Avenue  New  York,  U.  S.  A. 


BOSTON  COLLEGE 


3  9031 


023  32915  4 


NEW  ENGLAND 
DEPOSITORY  LIBRARY 

BOSTON  nni  I  ccr 


